iUTMENICS 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  CONTROLLABLE 
ENVIRONMENT 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


I 


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EUTHENICS 


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EUTHENICS 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  CONTROLLABLE 
ENVIRONMENT 


A  PLEA  FOR  BETTER 

LIVING  CONDITIONS  AS  A  FIRST  STEP 

TOWARD  HIGHER  HUMAN 

EFFICIENCY 


The  national  annual  unnecessary  loss  of  capitalized 
net  earnings  is  about  $i,ooo,cxx),cxx>. 

Report  on  National  Vitality 


By  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Author  of  Coit  of  Living  Series,  Art  of  Right  Living,  etc. 


WHITCOMB  &  BARROWS 

BOSTON,    19  lO 


OP  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


^^^"^cf 


QEHE^^ 


Copyright  1910 
By  Ellen  H.  Richards 


Thomas  Todd  Co.,  Printers 
14  Beacon  St.,  Boston 


FOREWORD 


20G434 


FOREWORD 

Never  has  society  been  so  clear  as  to  its  several  special  ends,  never  has 
so  little  effort  been  due  to  chance  or  compulsion. 

Ralph  Barton  Perry ^    The  Moral  Economy. 

NOT  through  chance,  but  through  in- 
crease of  scientific  knowledge;  not 
through  compulsion,  but  through  demo- 
cratic idealism  consciously  working  through 
common  interests,  will  be  brought  about  the 
creation  of  right  conditions,  the  control  of 
environment. 

The  betterment  of  living  conditions, 
through  conscious  endeavor,  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  efficient  human  beings,  is  what 
the  author  means  by  EUTHENICS.^ 

^^  Human  vitality  depends  upon  two  pri- 
mary conditions — heredity  and  hygiene — 
or  conditions  preceding  birth  and  condi- 
tions during  life."^ 

1  Eutheneo,  'EvBrjveco  [eu,  well  j  the,  root  of  tithemi,  to  cause) .  To- 
be  in  a  flourishing  state,  to  abound  in,  to  prosper. — Demosthenes.  To  be 
strong  or  vigorous. — Herodotus.      To  be  vigorous  in  body. — Artstotle. 

Euthenia,  'Evdrjvia.  Good  state  of  the  body  :  prosperity,  good  fortune, 
abundance. — Herodotus. 

2  Report  on  National  Vitality,  p.  49. 

vii 


Vlll  EUTHENICS 

Eugenics  deals  with  race  improvement 
through  heredity. 

Euthenics  deals  with  race  improvement 
through  environment. 

Eugenics  is  hygiene  for  the  future  gen- 
erations. 

Euthenics  is  hygiene  for  the  present 
generation. 

Eugenics  must  await  careful  investiga- 
tion. 

Euthenics  has  immediate  opportunity. 

Euthenics  precedes  eugenics,  develop- 
ing better  men  now,  and  thus  inevitably 
creating  a  better  race  of  men  in  the  future. 
Euthenics  is  the  term  proposed  for  the  pre- 
liminary science  on  which  Eugenics  must  be 
based. 

This  new  science  seeks  to  emphasize  the 
immediate  duty  of  man  to  better  his  condi- 
tions by  availing  himself  of  knowledge  al- 
ready at  hand.  As  far  as  in  him  lies  he  must 
make  application  of  this  knowledge  to  se- 
cure his  greatest  efficiency  under  conditions 
which  he  can  create  or  under  such  existing 
conditions  as  he  may  not  be  able  wholly  to 
control,  but  such  as  he  may  modify.    The 


EUTHENICS  ix 

knowledge  of  the  causes  of  disease  tends 
only  to  depress  the  average  citizen  rather 
than  to  arouse  him  to  combat  it.  Hope  of 
success  will  urge  him  forward,  and  it  is  the 
duty  of  lovers  of  mankind  to  show  all  pos- 
sible ways  of  attaining  the  goal.  The  tend- 
ency to  hopelessness  retards  reformation  and 
regeneration,  and  the  lack  of  belief  in  suc- 
cess holds  back  the  wheels  of  progress. 
Euthenics  is  to  be  developed : 

1.  Through  sanitary  science. 

2.  Through  education. 

3.  Through  relating  science  and  edu- 
cation to  life. 

Students  of  sanitary  science  discover  for 
us  the  laws  which  make  for  health  and  the 
prevention  of  disease.  The  laboratory  has 
been  studying  conditions  and  causes,  and 
now  can  show  the  way  to  many  remedies. 

A  knowledge  of  these  laws,  of  the  means 
of  conserving  man's  resources  and  vitality, 
which  will  result  in  the  wealth  of  human 
energy,  is  more  and  more  brought  within 
the  reach  of  all  by  various  educational 
agencies. 

The  individual  must  estimate  properly 


X  EUTHENICS 

the  value  of  this  knowledge  in  its  applica- 
tion to  daily  life,  in  order  to  secure  effi- 
ciency and  the  greatest  happiness  for  him- 
self and  for  the  community. 

Right  living  conditions  comprise  pure 
food  and  a  safe  water  supply,  a  clean  and 
disease-free  atmosphere  in  which  to  live 
and  work,  proper  shelter,  and  the  adjust- 
ment of  work,  rest,  and  amusement.  The 
attainment  of  these  conditions  calls  for 
hearty  cooperation  between  individual  and 
community — effort  on  the  part  of  the  in- 
dividual because  the  individual  makes  per- 
sonality a  power;  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
community  because  the  strength  of  com- 
bined endeavor  is  required  to  meet  all  great 
problems. 


EUTHENICS 

BETTER  ENVIRONMENT  FOR  THE  HUMAN 
RACE 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.     The  opportunity  for  betterment  is  real  and 

practical,  not  merely  academic     .  .  3 

II.  Individual  effort  is  needed  to  improve  indi- 
vidual conditions.  Home  and  habits 
of  living,  eating,  etc.  Good  habits  pay 
in  economy  of  time  and  force      .  .  15 

III.  Community  effort  is  needed  to  make  better 

conditions  for  all,  in  streets  and  public 
places,  for  water  and  milk  supply,  hos- 
pitals, markets,  housing  problems,  etc. 
Restraint  for  sake  of  neighbors     .  .  39 

IV.  Interchangeableness  of  these  two  forms  of 

progressive  effort.  First  one,  then  the 
other  ahead     .  .  .  .  .  59 

V.  The  child  to  be  **  raised  "  as  he  should  be. 
Restraint  for  his  good.  Teaching  good 
habits  the  chief  duty  of  the  family         .  73 

VI.  The  child  to  be  educated  in  the  light  of 
sanitary  science.  Office  of  the  school. 
Domestic  science  for  girls.  Applied 
science.  The  duty  of  the  higher  edu- 
cation.     Research  needed  .  .  91 


Xll  EUTHENICS 

VII.  Stimulative  education  for  adults.  Books, 
newspapers,  lectures,  working  models, 
museums,  exhibits,  moving  pictures       .  117 

VIII.  Both  child  and  adult  to  be  protected  from 
their  own  ignorance.  Educative  value 
of  law  and  of  fines  for  disobedience. 
Compulsory  sanitation  by  municipal, 
state,  and  federal  regulations.  Instruc- 
tive inspection  .  .  .  .  131 
IX.  There  is  responsibility  as  well  as  oppor- 
tunity. The  housewife  an  important 
factor  and  an  economic  force  in  improv- 
ing the  national  health  and  increasing 
the  national  wealth            ,          .          .  143 


CHAPTER  I 

The  opportunity  for  betterment  is  real  and 
practical^  not  merely  academic. 


Men  ignore  Nature's  laws  in  their  personal  lives.  They  crave  a 
larger  measure  of  goodness  and  happiness,  and  yet  in  their  choice  of 
dwelling  places,  in  their  building  of  houses  to  live  in,  in  their  selection 
of  food  and  drink,  in  their  clothing  of  their  bodies,  in  their  choice  of 
occupations  and  amusements,  in  their  methods  and  habits  of' work,  they 
disregard  natural  laws  and  impose  upon  themselves  conditions  that  make 
their  ideals  of  goodness  and  happiness  impossible  of  attainment. 

Prof.  George  E.  Daivson^  Tie  Control  of  Life  through 
Environment. 

And  is  it,  I  ask,  an  unworthy  ambition  for  man  to  set  before  himself 
to  understand  those  eternal  laws  upon  which  his  happiness,  his  prosperity, 
his  very  life  depend  ?  Is  he  to  be  blamed  and  anathematized  for  endeavor- 
ing to  fulfill  the  divine  injunction  :  '*  Fear  God  and  keep  His  command- 
ments, for  that  is  the  whole  duty  of  man ' '  ?  Before  he  can  keep  them, 
surely  he  must  first  ascertain  what  they  are. 

Adam  Sedgwick.  Address,  Imperial  College  of  Science 
and  Technology^  December  j6,  igog.  Nature^  De- 
cember 2j,  igog,  p.  228. 

In  my  judgment,  the  situation  is  hopeful.  To  realize  that  our 
problems  are  chiefly  those  of  environment  which  we  in  increasing  measure 
control,  to  realize  that,  no  matter  how  bad  the  environment  of  this 
generation,  the  next  is  not  injured  provided  that  it  be  given  favorable 
conditions,  is  surely  to  have  an  optimistic  view. 

Carl  Kelsey^  Influence  of  Heredity  and  Environment 
upon  Race  Improvement.  Annals  of  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social  Science^  July^  igog. 


CHAPTER  I 

It  is  within  the  power  of  every  living  man  to  rid  himself  of  every 
parasitic  disease.  Pasteur. 

SUCH  facts  as  the  following,  showing  the 
increase  in  health,  or  rather  the  de- 
crease in  disease,  go  to  prove  what  may  be 
done. 

Since  1882,  tuberculosis  has  decreased 
forty-nine  per  cent;  typhoid,  thirty-nine 
per  cent.  Statistics  in  regard  to  heart  dis- 
ease and  other  troubles  under  personal  con- 
trol, however,  show  increase — kidney  dis- 
ease, 131  per  cent;  heart  disease,  fifty-seven 
per  cent;  apoplexy,  eighty-four  per  cent. 
This  means  that  infectious  and  contagious 
diseases,  of  which  the  State  has  taken  cog- 
nizance and  to  the  suppression  of  which  it 
has  applied  known  laws  of  science,  have 
been  brought  under  control,  and  their  exist- 
ence today  is  due  only  to  the  carelessness  or 
the  ignorance  of  individuals. 

On  the  other  hand,  such  results  of  im- 
proper personal  living  as  do  not  come  under 

3 


4  EUTHENICS 

legal  control — diseases  of  the  heart,  kid- 
neys, and  general  degeneration,  matters  of 
personal  hygiene — have  so  enormously  in- 
creased as  in  themselves  to  show  the  atti- 
tude of  mind  of  the  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple, "Let  us  eat  and  drink  and  be  merry, 
what  if  we  do  die  tomorrow!" 

Probably  not  more  than  twenty-five  per 
cent  in  any  community  are  doing  a  full 
day's  work  such  as  they  would  be  capable 
of  doing  if  they  were  in  perfect  health. 
This  adds  to  the  length  of  the  school  course, 
to  the  cost  of  production  in  all  directions, 
to  increased  taxation,  and  decreases  interest 
in  daily  life. 

The  trouble  is  that  the  public  does  not 
believe  in  this  waste  which  comes  from  be- 
ing '^ jyst  poorly"  or  "just  so  as  to  be  about.". 
It  has  no  conception  of  the  difference  be- 
tween working  with  a  clear  brain  and  a 
steady  hand,  and  working  with  a  dull  and 
nerveless  tool.  It  must  be  convinced  of  this 
in  some  way.  General  warnings  have  been 
ineffective,  and  now  the  appeal  is  being 
made  to  the  American  people  on  the  basis  of 
money  loss.    Thus  it  has  been  carefully  esti- 


EUTHENICS  5 

mated  that  the  average  economic  value  of  an 
inhabitant  of  the  United  States  is  $2,900. 
The  vital  statistics  of  the  United  States  for 
population  give  85,500,000.  Eighty-five 
million  five  hundred  thousand  multiplied 
by  $2,900  equals  $250,000,000,000  (mini- 
mum estimate),  and  this  exceeds  the  value 
of  all  other  wealth.  The  actual  economic 
saving  possible  annually  in  this  country  by 
preventing  needless  deaths,  needless  illness, 
and  needless  fatigue  is  certainly  far  greater 
than  $1,500,000,000,  and  may  be  three  or 
four  times  as  great. 

Dr.  George  M.  Gould  estimated  that 
sickness  and  death  in  the  United  States  cost 
$3,000,000,000  annually,  of  which  at  least 
one-third  is  regarded  as  preventable. 

From  all  sides  comes  testimony  to  the 
decrease  in  personal  efficiency  of  workers 
of  all  degrees.  Medical  science  has  pro- 
longed life,  hospitals  and  visiting  nurses 
have  made  sickness  less  distressful,  but  have 
also  in  many  cases  prolonged  the  time  and 
increased  the  cost.  Sanitary  science  aims  to 
prevent  the  beginnings  of  sickness,  and  so  to 
eliminate  much  of  the  expense. 


6  EUTHENICS 

The  discovery  that  the  mosquito  is  the 
carrying  agent  for  the  yellow  fever  germ 
has  saved  more  lives  annually  than  were  lost 
in  the  Cuban  War.  In  the  yellow  fever  epi- 
demic of  1872,  the  loss  to  the  country  was 
not  less  than  $100,000,000  in  gold. 

"With  our  present  population  there  are 
always  about  3,000,000  persons  in  theUnited 
States  on  the  sick  list. .  . .  By  means  of  Farr's 
table,  we  may  calculate  that  very  close  to  a 
third,  or  1,000,000  persons,  are  in  the  work- 
ing period  of  life.  Assuming  that  average 
earnings  in  the  working  period  are  $700, 
and  that  only  three-fourths  of  the  1,000,000 
potential  workers  would  be  occupied,  we 
find  over  $500,000,000  as  the  minimum  loss 
of  earnings. 

"The  cost  of  medical  attendance,  medi- 
cine and  nursing,  etc.,  is  conjectured  by 
Dr.  Biggs  in  New  York  to  be  from  $1.50 
each  per  day  for  the  consumptive  poor  to 
a  greater  amount  for  other  diseases  and 
classes.  Applying  this  to  the  3,000,000  years 
of  illness  annually  experienced,  we  have 
$1,500,000,000  as  the  minimum  annual  cost 
of  this  kind. 


EUTHENICS  7 

"The  statistics  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor  show  that  the  expenditure  for  illness 
and  death  amounts  to  twenty-seven  dollars 
per  family  per  annum.  This  is  for  work- 
ingmen's  families  only.  But  even  this  fig- 
ure, if  applied  to  the  17,000,000  families 
of  the  United  States,  would  make  the  total 
bill  caring  for  illness  and  death  $460,000,- 
000.  The  true  cost  may  well  be  more  than 
twice  this  sum.  Certainly  the  estimate  is 
more  than  safe,  and  is  only  one-third  of  the 
sum  obtained  by  using  Dr.  Biggs's  estimate. 
The  sum  of  the  costs  of  illness,  including 
loss  of  wages  and  cost  of  care,  is  thus  $460,- 
000,000  plus  $500,000,000  equals  $960,000,- 
000.  ...  At  least  three-quarters  of  the  costs 
are  preventable."^ 

The  cost  of  certain  preventable  diseases 
a  year  is  estimated  by  various  authorities  as : 

Tuberculosis $1,000,000,000 

Typhoid    250,000,000 

Malaria     100,000,000 

Other  Insect  diseases 100,000,000 

A  hopeful  sign  of  awakening  is  the  en- 
deavor by  life  insurance  companies  to  bring 

1  Report  on  National  Vitality,  p.  119. 


8  EUTHENICS 

home  to  the  people  the  possibilities  of  race 
betterment.  One  company  sends  out  among 
its  policy  holders  trained  nurses,  who  give 
plain  talks  on  health  subjects  and  offer  prac- 
tical suggestions  as  to  hygienic  living.  This, 
to  be  sure,  is  on  the  economic  basis  of  money 
saving,  but  if  that  is  the  only  thing  that 
will  appeal  to  the  people  is  it  not  wise  to 
seize  upon  it  as  a  lever  to  lift  the  standard 
of  well-being? 

The  possibility  of  saving  the  enormous 
sums  that  are  lost  by  reason  of  premature 
deaths  was  an  alluring  subject  to  the  in- 
surance men.  It  gave  to  the  world  what, 
up  to  that  time,  it  had  lacked — a  body  of 
powerful  men  who  recognized  that  they 
had  a  financial  interest  in  preventing  the 
needless  death  of  men  and  women. 

A  table  has  been  prepared  showing  that 
if  insurance  companies  were  to  expend 
$200,000  a  year  for  the  purely  commercial 
object  of  reducing  their  death  losses,  and 
should  thereby  decrease  them  only  twelve 
one-hundredths  of  one  per  cent,  they  would 
save  enough  to  cover  the  expense. 

"If  such  a  plan  as  this  were  placed  on 


EUTHENICS  9 

a  purely  scientific  basis  and  carried  out  by 
good  business  methods,  and  all  the  com- 
panics  pulled  together  for  the  common 
good,  I  should  expect  a  decrease  in  death 
claims  of  more  than  one  per  cent;  and  a 
decrease  in  the  death  claims  of  one  per  cent 
would  mean  that  the  companies  would  save 
more  than  eight  times  as  much  as  they  ex- 
pended, or  would  make  a  net  saving  of  more 
than  seven  times  the  expense,  which  would 
be  about  a  million  and  a  half  dollars  a 
year."  ^ 

"While  it  would  be  impossible  to  state  in 
general  terms  how  rich  a  return  lies  ready 
for  public  or  private  investments  in  good 
health,  these  examples  (life  insurance) 
show  that  the  rate  of  this  return  is  quite 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice.  Were  it 
possible  for  the  public  to  realize  this  fact, 
motives  both  of  economy  and  of  humanity 
would  dictate  immediate  and  generous  ex- 
penditure of  public  moneys  for  improving 
the  air  we  breathe,  the  water  we  drink,  the 
food  we  eat,  as  well  as  for  eliminating  the 

1  Hiram  J.  Messenger,  Travelers  Insurance  Co.,  Hartford,  Conn. 


lO  EUTHENICS 

dangers  of  life  and  limb  which  now  sur- 
round us."^ 

Undoubtedly  a  moral  force  is  to  be 
strengthened  by  spreading  the  biological 
lesson  that  man  cannot  live  to  himself  alone, 
but  that  his  acts  or  failure  to  act  affect  a 
large  number  of  his  fellowmen.  Also,  a 
stimulus  to  personal  ambition  is  to  be  sup- 
plied in  the  suggestion  of  better  health  and 
consequently  more  money  to  spend  as  a 
result. 

Civic  pride  and  private  gain  will  be 
brought  into  the  endeavor  to  show  man  that 
to  understand  himself,  to  exercise  the  same 
control  over  his  activities  that  he  uses  over 
his  machines,  is  to  double  his  capacity,  not 
only  for  work,  but  for  pleasure.  This  con- 
trol is  now  possible  through  the  application 
of  recently  confirmed  scientific  knowledge 
as  to  man's  environment. 

It  is  the  aim  of  this  book  to  arouse  the 
thinking  portion  of  the  community  to  the 
opportunity  of  the  present  moment  for  in- 
culcating such  standards  of  living  as  shall 
tend  to  the  increase  of  health  and  happiness. 

1  Report  on  National  Vitality,  p.  123. 


EUTHENICS  1 1 

To  the  women  of  America  has  come  an 
opportunity  to  put  their  education,  their 
power  of  detailed  work,  and  any  initiative 
they  may  possess  at  the  service  of  the  State. 

Faith,  Hope,  and  Courage  may  be  taken 
as  the  three  potent  watchwords  of  the  New 
Crusade.  There  is  a  real  contagion  of  ideas 
as  well  as  of  disease  germs. 


CHAPTER   II 

Individual  ejfort  is  needed  to  improve  indi- 
vidual conditions.  Home  and  habits  of  liv- 
ing. Good  habits  pay  in  economy  of  time 
and  force. 


The  hope  is  springing  up  in  some  minds  that  the  entire  problem  of 
human  regeneration  will  be  much  simplified  when  men  shall  have  learned 
more  fully  the  nature  of  their  own  lives,  the  nature  of  the  physical  world 
that  environs  them,  and  the  interaction  between  this  physical  world  and 
the  spirit  of  man  which  is  set  to  subdue  it. 

Frof.    George  E.   Daivson,    The    Control  of  Life   through 
Environment. 

We  create  the  evil  as  well  as  the  good.  Nature  is  impersonal.  To 
an  increasing  degree  man  determines.  Carl  Kehey. 

The  only  certain  remedy  for  any  disease  is  man's  own  vital  power. 

Today  only  an  exceptional  man,  almost  a  genius,  learns  to  modify  his 
habits  and  his  life  to  his  environment  and  to  triumph  over  his  surroundings, 
his  appetites,  and  the  absurd  dictates  of  fashion. 

Richard   Cole   Neivton,    M.D.,   Hoiv    Shall  the   Destruc- 
tive Tendencies  of  Modern  Life  Be  Met  and  Overcome  f 

We  have  certain  inherent  capacities  as  to  bodily  strength,  length  of 
life,  etc.,  but  it  lies  largely  with  ourselves  to  adopt  a  mode  of  life  which 
may  make  an  actual  difference  in  height,  weight,  and  physical  strength 
and  intellectual  capacity. 

E.  H.  Richards,  Sanitation  in  Daily  Life. 

There  are  two  recognized  ways  of  improving  the  quality  of  human 
beings  :  one  by  giving  them  a  better  heredity  —  starting  them  in  life  with 
a  stronger  heart,  better  digestion,  steadier  nerves  j  the  other  by  so  com- 
bining the  factors  of  daily  life  that  even  a  weak  heart  may  grow  strong, 
a  poor  digestion  may  become  good,  and  frayed  nerves  gain  steadiness. 

E.  H.  Richards,  The  Art  of  Right  Living. 


H 


CHAPTER   II 

FAITH 

THE  relation  of  environment  to  man's 
efficiency  is  a  vital  consideration :  how 
far  it  is  responsible  for  his  character,  his 
views,  and  his  health ;  what  special  elements 
in  the  environment  are  most  potent  and 
what  are  the  most  readily  controlled,  pro- 
vided sufficient  knowledge  can  be  gained  of 
the  forces  and  conditions  to  be  used. 

To  this  end  home  life — in  its  relations 
to  the  child,  the  adult,  and  the  community — 
is  considered  in  connection  with  the  effect 
on  the  home  of  the  influences  outside  it,  and 
the  reaction  of  each  on  the  other.  These 
relations  and  influences  are  partly  physical 
and  material,  partly  ethical  and  psychical. 

The  right  of  the  child  is  protection,  and 
it  is  the  responsibility  of  the  adult — parent, 
teacher,  or  state  officer — to  secure  this  pro- 
tection. 

The  knowledge  that  investigators  are 
gaining  in  the  laboratory  and  are  trying  to 

>5 


1 6  EUTHENICS 

give  to  the  community  must  be  accepted  and 
applied  by  the  individual.  How  is  the  in- 
dividual, discouraged  by  sickness  and  hard- 
ship, to  know  that  things  are  awry  or  that 
they  can  be  set  more  nearly  straight?  How 
can  he  know  that  he  is  responsible  for  his 
limitations?  Why  should  he  suppose  that 
he  need  not  be  eternally  a  slave  to  environ- 
ment? How  can  he  realize  that  "health 
promotes  efficiency  by  producing  more 
energy  and  leaving  it  all  free  for  useful 
purposes?"  A  few  enlightened  souls  recog- 
nize the  tendency  of  environment  to  kick 
the  man  that  is  down;  to  be  subservient  to 
the  man  of  bodily  and  mental  vigor,  of  keen 
understanding  and  human  insight,  but  the 
majority  must  be  led  to  believe  these  scien- 
tific principles. 

Again  and  again  scientists  and  humani- 
tarians must  return  to  the  attack,  for  in- 
dividual carelessness  becomes  community 
menace,  and  "line  upon  line  and  precept 
upon  precept"  they  must  present  their 
knowledge  in  language  that  shall  attract 
and  hold  the  attention  and  fancy.  So  the 
work  and  discoveries  of  Metchnikoff  have 


EUTHENICS  17 

gained  credence  because  the  disciple  who 
described  them  had  the  ability  to  impress  on 
his  audience  in  a  convincing  fashion  the  one 
fact  that  made  a  strong  appeal — the  possi- 
bility of  long  life.  If  those  who  are  zealous 
for  any  movement  would  study  the  psychol- 
ogy of  advertising  and  speak  as  forcefully 
as  the  legitimate  advertiser,  they  would  be 
more  persuasive  and  successful. 

When  an  idea  has  won  in  a  certain  circle, 
it  quickly  spreads  to  the  other  members, 
thence  to  active  communities.  So  the  uni- 
versal law  of  imitation  may  be  the  greatest 
help  in  the  spread  of  ideas.  The  individual 
eats  a  certain  food  because  his  neighbor 
does.  Boston  determines  to  make  an  effort 
for  a  better  city  because  Chicago  has  felt 
the  stirrings  of  civic  pride. 

A  gifted  individual  with  a  deep  sense 
of  the  need  of  his  community  sees  an  ideal 
condition,  which  by  his  thought  becomes  a 
possibility.  These  beliefs  he  shares  with  a 
few  choice  spirits  till  the  circle  has  wid- 
ened. The  new  ideas  come  to  the  notice  of 
the  city  or  the  town  officials,  new  means  are 
adopted  of  educating  the  whole  commu- 


1 8  EUTHENICS 

nity,  and,  if  necessary,  legal  measures  are 
passed.  But  the  new  means  to  betterment 
must  be  applied  by  the  individual.  Begin- 
ning with  the  exceptional  individual  and 
ending  with  the  average  individual,  the 
perfect  circle  is  rounded  out. 

The  leaders  must  show  convincingly 
that  the  laws  which  they  have  discovered 
may  be  applied  to  daily  life,  but  the  indi- 
/  vidual  himself  must  adopt  them.  When  he 
has  been  saturated  with  knowledge,  his  in- 
ertia will  break  down,  his  hopelessness  give 
way  to  its  very  antithesis,  a  strong  hope  for 
a  better  future.  Every  known  method  must 
be  used  by  the  laboratory  to  develop  this 
hope  into  a  belief  wide  enough  to  reach  all 
members  of  every  section  of  the  community 
and  deep  enough  to  become  a  vital  working 
principle.  Only  through  a  belief  strong 
enough  to  ride  over  unbelief  and  inertia, 
a  belief  in  the  value  of  science  for  personal 
life  strong  enough  to  make  a  wise  choice 
possible,  can  the  will  to  obtain  a  better 
environment  be  developed.  The  belief  in 
better  things  must  be  thoroughly  impressed 
on  the  individual  mind.     Each  individual 


EUTHENICS  19 

must  understand  that  it  does  affect  him^  that 
it  is  his  concern,  that  he  must  give  heed  to 
his  environment.  Then  he  may  have  the 
will  and  make  the  effort  to  combat  dangers 
to  body  and  mind. 

Today,  belief  is  much  more  difficult  than 
ever  before  because  the  dangers  are  unseen 
and  insidious,  and  our  enemies  do  not  gen- 
erally make  an  appeal  through  the  senses 
of  sight  and  hearing.  But  the  dangers  to 
modern  life  are  no  less  than  in  the  days  of 
the  pioneers,  when  a  stockade  was  built  as 
a  defense  from  the  Indians.  We  have  no 
standards  for  safety.  Our  enemies  are  no 
longer  Indians  and  wild  animals.  Those 
were  the  days  of  big  things.  Today  is  the 
day  of  the  infinitely  little.  To  see  our  crud- 
est enemies,  we  must  use  the  microscope. 
Of  all  our  dangers,  that  of  uncleanness  leads 
— uncleanness  of  food  and  water  and  air — 
uncleanness  due  to  unsanitary  production 
and  storage,  to  exposure  to  street  dust,  or  to 
cooking  and  serving  of  food  in  unclean  ves- 
sels. Such  conditions  result  not  only  in 
actual  disease,  but  in  lowered  vitality  and 
lessened  work  power. 


20  EUTHENICS 

Lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  some, 
heedlessness  on  the  part  of  others  who 
should  be  intelligent  enough  to  interpret 
such  conditions,  are  responsible  for  their 
continuance.  A  few  timely  suggestions 
will  accomplish  more  in  remedying  many 
evils  than  any  amount  of  attempted  legal 
enforcement.  The  very  fact  of  a  law  makes 
many  persons  defy  it.  They  feel  justified 
in  showing  their  wit  by  outwitting  the 
law's  representatives.  Many  of  our  newer 
citizens  have  come  to  us  from  the  protec- 
tion (?)  of  a  personal  authority  that  they 
can  see  and  feel.  In  this  country  of  ours, 
we  have  taken  away  that  binding  regard  for 
authority,  and  we  must  as  far  as  possible 
lead  rather  than  compel. 

It  is,  after  all,  what  a  man  determines 
for  himself  and  for  his  family  that  affects 
both  his  views  of  life  and  his  wish  to  secure 
for  himself  and  for  them  that  which  he  be- 
lieves to  be  best.  It  is  not  what  some  other 
man  believes  for  him  that  affects  his  life. 

Evolution  from  within,  not  a  dragging 
from  outside,  even  if  it  is  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, is  the  method  of  human  development. 


EUTHENICS  21 

Nevertheless,  if  the  bale  of  hay  is  skillfully 
hung  in  front  of  the  donkey's  nose  it  will 
often  serve  to  start  the  wheels  on  an  easy 
road. 

Evidence  of  the  value  of  concerted 
effort  by  individuals  and  of  the  power  of 
suggestion  was  given  by  a  woman's  club  in 
a  small  town.  The  members  became  aware 
of  the  dangers  in  exposed  food,  and  on  in- 
vestigation found  their  own  market  to  be 
very  low  in  standards  of  cleanness.  At  a 
certain  meeting  they  agreed  to  ask  the  pro- 
prietor why  he  did  not  protect  this  and 
cover  that  article.  Certain  members  were 
told  off  for  the  duty  and  the  days  agreed 
upon.  Mrs.  A.,  making  her  usual  pur- 
chases, casually  asked  why  such  an  article 
was  not  covered.  ^^I  never  thought  about 
it,"  was  the  answer.  Mrs.  B.,  the  next  day, 
asked  why  such  an  article  was  left  out  for 
the  flies.  "I  never  thought  about  the  flies." 
Mrs.  C.  asked  the  same  question  on  the 
third  day.  The  proprietor  said:  "You're 
the  third  woman  who  has  asked  me  that. 
No  one  ever  suggested  it  before,  but  it 
would  be  a  good  idea."    Before  the  end  of 


22  EUTHENICS 

two  weeks  the  provisions  and  groceries  were 
covered.  The  end  had  been  gained  without 
resort  to  coercion. 

We  know  that  our  capacity  for  mental 
and  bodily  work  depends  on  our  supply  of 
food.  Proper  food  is  necessary  as  a  source 
of  power  for  the  work  of  the  body  as  well 
as  to  furnish  material  for  growth  and  repair 
of  the  losses  of  the  body.  Taking  food  is 
the  most  interesting  of  the  vital  processes. 
It  appeals  to  all  the  senses  (except  hearing) . 

Professor  Dawson  calls  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  richest  food  areas  in  the  world 
have  provided  the  most  powerful  stocks  of 
men  of  which  we  have  any  record,  and  it 
has  been  pointed  out  by  many  that  im- 
proper food  is  closely  connected  with 
mental  and  moral  defects.  Strong  men  and 
women  are  not  the  product  of  improper 
food.  Dr.  Stanley  Hall  says:  "The  neces- 
sity of  judicious,  wholesome  food  is  para- 
mount. .  .  .  You  can  educate  a  long  time  by 
externals  and  not  accomplish  as  much  as 
good  feeding  will  accomplish  by  itself. 
Children  must  be  supplied  with  plenty  of 
nutritious  food  if  they  are  to  develop  health- 
ily either  in  mind  or  body." 


EUTHENICS  23 

Mr:  Robert  Hunter  says:  "All  that  we 
are,  either  as  individuals  or  as  a  complexly 
constituted  society  of  men,  is  made  possible 
by  the  food  supply.  .  .  .  Perhaps  more  than 
any  other  condition  of  life  it  lies  at  the 
door  of  most  of  the  social  and  mental  in- 
equalities among  men." 

In  these  days  of  irresponsibility  there  is 
probably  more  harm  done  to  the  health  by 
ignoring  physical  law  in  the  matter  of  eat- 
ing than  in  any  other  one  thing. 

It  is  in  the  study  of  food  substances  and 
their  possibilities  in  relation  to  better  sani- 
tary conditions  that  the  widest  field  is  open 
to  housekeepers,  and  the  subject  should  be 
especially  fascinating  to  women  of  educa- 
tion and  ability.  All  the  skill  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  best  educated  women  should  be 
enlisted  in  the  cause  of  better  food  for  the 
people.  Certainly  no  subject,  except  that 
of  pure  air,  can  have  a  closer  bearing  on  the 
health  than  right  diet.  Much  sound  teach- 
ing will  be  needed  before  bad  habits  of 
eating  and  drinking  will  be  conquered. 

A  strong,  well  man  whose  work  is  mus- 
cular and  carried  on  in  the  open  air,  as  is 


24  EUTHENICS 

that  of  the  farmer  and  of  the  fisherman, 
will  have  the  power  to  assimilate  almost 
anything,  and  can  maintain  abundant  health 
on  the  coarsest  food  poorly  prepared,  pro- 
vided, only,  that  it  is  abundant  and  com- 
posed of  the  chemical  constituents  that  the 
body  requires. 

Only  a  small  proportion  of  our  people, 
however,  engage  in  work  of  this  sort.  The 
majority  are  compelled  by  occupation,  age, 
or  health  to  remain  indoors.  For  them 
nutritious,  readily  digested  food  is  a  requi- 
site. The  farmer  or  the  fisherman  can 
digest,  even  thrive  upon,  food  which  would 
be  deadly  for  a  woman  working  in  a  factory. 

In  the  fourth  report  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Board  of  Health  (1873), 
Dr.  Derby,  the  secretary,  holds  that  '^we 
have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  many 
forms  of  dyspepsia  which  are  so  commonly 
met  with  among  all  classes  in  Massachu- 
setts, in  country  quite  as  much  as  in  town, 
are  but  too  often  the  danger  signal  that 
Nature  gives  us  to  show  that  the  food,  either 
in  its  quality,  or  its  preparation,  or  its  vari- 
ety, is  unsuited  to  maintain  the  vital  proc- 


EUTHENICS  25 

esses.  If  this  warning  is  rejected,  the  result 
of  malnutrition  is  frequently  chronic  disease 
of  the  so-called  major  class." 

Sanitation  in  relation  to  food  deals  first 
with  wholesome  and  clean  materials — meat 
from  animals  free  from  disease;  fruit  and 
vegetables  free  from  decay;  milk,  butter, 
etc.,  free  from  harmful  bacteria.  The  dan- 
gers are  the  transference  to  the  human  body 
of  encysted  organisms  like  trichina;  of  the 
absorption  of  poisonous  substances  as  toxins 
or  ptomaines;  of  the  lodgment  of  germs  of 
disease  along  with  dust  on  berries,  rough 
peach  skins,  crushed-open  fruits;  of  dirt 
clinging  to  lettuce,  celery,  and  such  vege- 
tables as  are  eaten  raw. 

For  the  next  class  of  dangers  we  turn  to 
the  handling  of  foods  with  unclean  hands. 

In  countless  ways  disease  is  spread  mys- 
teriously, all  due  to  unclean  habits.  It  is  a 
safe  precaution  to  patronize  only  those  res- 
taurants in  which  the  waiters  are  evidently 
trained  to  handle  the  food  and  vessels  with 
care.  It  will  pay  well  to  take  care  of  one's 
hands  and  learn  sanitary  habits  when  one  is 
young;  then  one  will  do  right  without  effort. 


..         O*^   THE 
OF 


26  EUTHENICS 

Whatever  change  of  ideas  may  come  with 
increase  of  knowledge,  these  habits  will  not 
need  to  be  unlearned.  Without  knowing 
the  reasons  for  them,  they  have  been  pro- 
claimed in  civilized  lands. 

It  should  be  the  part  of  the  physicians 
to  take  pains  to  advise,  for  most  of  our  peo- 
ple are  accessible  to  ideas;  yet  from  these 
can  come  no  improvement  until  the  people 
are  convinced  that  it  is  needed.  Just  as  soon 
as  the  individual  fully  realizes  that  he  him- 
self is  to  blame  for  his  suffering  or  his 
poverty  in  human  energy,  he  will  apply  his 
intelligence  to  the  bettering  of  his  condition. 
If  he  can,  in  a  short  time,  make  as  good  a 
showing  as  public  effort  has  made  in  the 
case  of  water  supplies,  he  will  accomplish 
much  for  the  race. 

Of  equal  importance  to  food,  in  the 
proper  care  of  the  human  machine,  comes 
the  air  we  breathe. 

Many  of  man's  present  physical  troubles 
are  due  to  the  roof  over  his  head  confining 
the  warmed,  used-up  air,  which  would  es- 
cape freely  if  there  were  an  opening  pro- 
vided.   The  first  law  of  sanitation  requires 


EUTHENICS  27 

the  quick  removal  of  all  wastes.  Once- 
breathed  air  is  as  much  a  waste  as  once-used 
water,  and  should  be  allowed  to  escape. 
Sewers  are  built  for  draining  away  used 
water.  Flues  are  just  as  important  to  serve 
as  sewers  for  used  air.  Air  is  lighter  than 
water,  and  out-breathed  air  being  warmed 
is  lighter  than  that  at  room  temperature. 
It  rises  to  the  ceiling,  where  it  will  escape 
if  it  is  allowed  to  do  so  before  it  cools  suffi- 
ciently to  fall. 

The  roof  also  keeps  out  sunlight,  and 
some  late  investigations  indicate  that  glass 
cuts  off  some  of  the  most  vitally  important 
light  rays.  The  ^^glame"  of  the  Ralston- 
ites — "air  in  motion  with  the  sunlight  on 
it" — may  have  a  scientific  basis. 

It  will  at  once  be  retorted,  "But  we  can- 
not heat  all  out-of-doors." 

A  partial  reply  is:  Do  not  try  to  make 
your  house  a  tropical  jungle.  Travelers 
assure  us  that  such  an  atmosphere  is  not 
conducive  to  work  or  to  health. 

All  great  nations  have  lived  in  a  temper- 
ate climate,  where  physical  and  mental  ac- 
tivity was  possible  for  many  hours  a  day. 


28  EUTHENICS 

Science  is  more  and  more  clearly  giving 
reasons  for  the  cooler  temperature  in  cer- 
tain physiological  laws.  The  habits  of  life 
in  regard  to  air  and  food  are  largely  under 
individual,  or  at  least  under  family  control, 
and  should  be  studied  as  personal  hygiene. 

The  lessons  being  so  clearly  taught  in 
the  treatment  of  tuberculosis  should  be 
heeded  in  forming  the  general  living  habits 
of  the  people. 

If  loss  of  life  can  be  lessened  and  work- 
ing power  increased  by  man's  effort,  why 
does  he  not  make  the  effort?  Why  are  men 
and  women  so  apathetic  over  the  prevalence 
of  disease?  Why  do  they  not  devote  their 
energies  to  stamping  it  out?  For  no  other 
reason  than  their  disbelief  in  the  teachings 
of  science,  coupled  with  a  lingering  super- 
stition that,  after  all,  it  is  fate,  not  will 
power,  which  rules  the  destinies  of  man- 
kind. 

Perhaps  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that 
a  sturdy  plant  of  belief  should  have  grown 
since  the  days  of  Edwin  Chadwick  and 
Benjamin  Ward  Richardson  (1830-50), 
less  than  a  century  ago,  when  there  were 


EUTHENICS  29 

perhaps  not  a  dozen  men  and  women  who 
believed  that  man  had  any  appreciable 
control  over  his  own  health. 

This  early  school  of  sanitarians  en- 
deavored to  "get  behind  fate,  to  the  causes 
of  sickness."  The  modern  socionomist  is, 
by  a  study  of  the  mental  conditions  of  com- 
munities, endeavoring  to  get  behind  the 
causes  of  poverty  and  consequent  suffering 
to  the  reasons  for  fatal  indifference  to  dirt. 

It  is  well  recognized  that  in  severe  sick- 
nesses of  many  kinds  the  will  to  get  well  is 
more  powerful  than  drugs,  that  something 
which  we  call  nerve  force  acting  upon  the 
physical  machine  sends  a  vital  current 
through  the  arteries,  coerces  the  heart  to 
renewed  pumping  action,  and  life  comes 
again  to  the  blanched  cheek  and  glazing 
eye.  This  more  often  happens  by  a  mental 
stimulus  than  by  any  medicine.  In  like 
manner  the  improvement  of  the  body's 
shell,  the  home,  like  that  of  the  soul's  shell, 
the  body,  comes  more  often  from  an  inward 
impulse  than  from  outward  coercion. 

Appeal  to  the  loving  but  listless  parent 
will  reach  the  heart  quickest  through  love 


30  EUTHENICS 

for  the  child.  Therefore  stress  should  be 
laid  on  the  child,  its  habits,  its  surround- 
ings, its  ideals.  By  ideals  is  meant  the  very 
real  stimulus  to  action  coming  from  within. 
Action  must  come  through  the  material 
things  which  ideals  control  and  through 
which  they  express  themselves. 

Certain  notions  which  have  crept  into 
popular  currency  need  to  be  corrected  be- 
fore the  individual  can  free  himself  from 
bondage  sufficiently  to  attempt  constructive 
advance  and  improvement. 

Only  a  small  percentage  of  adults  obtain 
the  full  efficiency  from  the  human  machine 
— the  only  means  they  have  of  living,  work- 
ing, enjoying.  They  permit  themselves  to 
stand  and  walk  badly,  they  breathe  with 
only  a  portion  of  their  lungs,  and  so  fail 
to  furnish  the  blood  stream  with  oxygen. 
They  dress  unhygienically.  They  eat 
wrongly.  They  exercise  little.  In  short, 
they  subject  their  bodies  to  abusive  treat- 
ment which  would  ruin  any  machine.  Be- 
cause retribution  does  not  instantly  follow 
infraction  of  Nature's  laws,  they  become 
callous    and   unbelieving.      Economy   and 


EUTHENICS  31 

efficiency  in  human  time  and  strength  is 
one  of  the  lessons  to  be  taught  the  young 
people,  so  that  they  may  not  waste  their 
patrimony. 

The  youth  feels  as  rich  in  his  fifty  years 
to  come  as  he  does  with  a  legacy  of  $50,000 
in  the  bank.  The  years,  however,  can  yield 
only  small  variations  from  the  established 
rate  of  interest.  The  human  machine  can 
manufacture  only  a  limited  amount  of 
energy.  It  remains  to  utilize  that  quantity 
to  the  best  advantage.  This  can  be  done 
only  by  having  a  purpose  in  life  strong 
enough  to  resist  alluring  temptations  to 
fritter  away  both  time  and  strength. 

One  of  the  world's  busy  workers  found 
that  the  distractions  of  urban  life  were 
breaking  in  upon  his  working  time  and 
making  inroads  upon  his  physical  vitality. 
He  recognized  that  work  for  the  body  and 
work  for  the  mind  must  be  balanced,  and  he 
evolved  an  acrostic  to  be  followed  as  a  rule 
of  life,  the  fulfillment  of  which  has  meant 
prolonged  years  of  efficient  work  and  has 
kept  the  freshness  of  middle  life  with  the 
advancing  years.     Taking  the  six  days  of 


32 

EUTHENICS 

the   week    as    a    unit,    the    acrostic    is 

follows : 

The  Feast  of  Life 

F 

Food                    One-tenth  the  time 

E 

Exercise               One-tenth  the  time 

A 

Amusement         One-tenth  the  time 

S 

Sleep                    Three-tenths  the  time 

T 

Task                    Four-tenths    the  time 

as 


The  first  and  last  are  nearly  fixed  quantities, 
the  other  three  may  vary  within  certain 
limits  as  to  amount  of  time  given  and  inten- 
sity of  effort.  Amusement  and  exercise  may 
be  taken  together;  exercise  and  sleep  may 
be  somewhat  interchangeable. 

The  task,  or  daily  work,  is  a  necessity  for 
mental  and  physical  health.  It  should  be 
accepted  as  a  part  of  human  life  and  the 
will  and  energy  should  be  directed  to  doing 
it  well.  It  may  be  a  pure  delight,  the  most 
entertaining  thing  that  happens;  it  should 
be  interesting.  It  is  astonishing  how  inter- 
esting a  dull  piece  of  work  may  become  if 
one  sets  one's  self  to  doing  it  well.  That 
which  one  subconsciously  knows  one  is  do- 
ing badly  is  drudgery.  The  real  pleasure 
in  life  comes  not  from  so-called  amusements 


EUTHENICS  33 

— things  done  by  other  people  to  make  one 
laugh;  to  "take  one's  mind  off" — but  from 
seeing  the  work  of  one's  own  hand  and 
brain  prosper.  The  work  of  creation,  of 
transformation  to  desirable  result,  is  the 
purest  joy  the  human  mind  can  experience. 
Fourteen  hours  a  day  is  not  too  much  for 
this  kind  of  task.  The  difficulty  is  to  gain 
skill  of  hand  and  eye,  or  training  of  mind, 
to  this  end.  A  fallacy,  a  canker  at  the  heart 
of  our  social  fabric  today,  is  that  the  daily 
task  is  something  to  be  rid  of. 

The  psychology  of  doing  is  clearly  illus- 
trated in  the  character  of  Fool  Billy,  as 
drawn  by  the  author  of  "Priscilla  of  the 
Good  Intent." 

"Is  there  nought  ye  like  better  than 
idleness?"  asked  the  blacksmith.  "Think 
now,  Billy — just  ponder  over  it." 

"Well,  now,"  answered  the  other,  after 
a  silence,  "there's  playing — what  ye  might 
call  playing  at  a  right  good  game.  Could 
ye  think  of  some  likely  pastime,  David?" 

"Ay,  could  I;  blowing  bellows  is  the 
grandest  frolic  ever  I  came  across."  .  .  . 

"I    doubt    'tis    work,    David.    ...    I 


34  EUTHENICS 

shouldn't  like  to  be  trapped  into  work. 
'Twould  scare  me  when  I  woke  o'  nights 
and  thought  of  it." 

^^See  ye  then,  Billy" — blowing  the 
bellows  gently — ^'is  it  work  to  make  yon 
sparks  go,  blue  and  green  and  red,  as  fast 
as  ever  ye  like  to  drive  'em?" 

"Te-he,  'tis  just  a  bit  o'  sport — I  hadn't 
thought  of  it  in  that  light."  And  soon  he 
was  blowing  steadily. 

Later,  when  David  the  smith  was  going 
to  America  and  wished  to  leave  his  forge 
with  the  half-witted  Billy,  he  proposed  the 
smith's  work  as  play. 

"Te-he,"  laughed  Billy,  "am  I  to  play 
wi'  all  your  fine  tools,  David?" 

"Ay,  just  that.  I've  taught  ye  the  way 
o'  them  and  Dan  Foster's  lad  from  Brow 
Farm  shall  come  and  blow  the  bellows  for 
you." 

"Will  that  be  work  for  Dan  Foster's 
lad,  or  play?" 

"Hard  work,  Billy — grievous  hard 
work,  while  you  are  just  playing  at  mak- 
ing horseshoes,   fence   railings,   and  what 


not." 


EUTHENICS  35 

"And  I'm  to  play  at  making  horse- 
shoes," went  on  Fool  Billy,  "while  Dan 
Foster's  lad's  sweating  hard  at  bellows- 
blowing." 


CHAPTER   III 

Community  effort  is  needed  to  make  better 
conditions  for  ally  in  streets  and  public 
places^  for  water  and  milk  supply^  hos- 
pitalsy  markets^  housing  problems^  etc.  Re- 
straint for  sake  of  neighbors. 


Quite  slowly  but  surely,  the  idea  is  dawning  on  the  social  horizon 
that  the  persistence  of  conditions  prejudicial  to  human  prosperity  is  dis- 
creditable to  a  civilized  community,  and  that  economics  if  not  ethics  calls 
for  their  control.  Alice  Ra-venhill. 


that  hospitals,  dispensaries,  surgical  and  medical  treatment,  nursing  and 
preventive  measures  must  be  developed  and  dovetailed  into  a  general  social 
scheme  for  the  elimination  of  preventable  diseases  and  a  very  substantial 
reduction  in  the  prevalence  of  such  diseases  as  cannot  as  yet  be  classed  as 
preventable.  Edward  DevinCy  Social  Forces. 

Nature  endows  the  vast  majority  of  mankind  vnth  a  birthright  of 
normal  physical  efficiency.  It  is  the  duty  of  those  who  aspire  to  be 
known  as  social  workers  each  to  do  his  share  in  confirming  his  fellow 
beings  in  this  possession. 

Dr.  H.  M.  Eichhol%,  Inspector  of  Schools.      Paper  before 
Conference  of  Women  Workers ^  London^  igo^. 

We  know  now  that  if  we  do  the  things  we  ought  to  do,  we  can 
prevent  sickness.  We  have  reached  a  point  where  it  is  recognized  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  community  or  state  to  effectually  protect  itself  against 
the  ignorant,  the  selfish,  the  filthy,  and  the  diseased.  We  believe  now 
that  we  must  have  proper  sewage  disposal,  pure  water,  decent  tenements, 
clean  streets,  good-sized  playgrounds,  supervision  of  factories,  protection 
of  child  labor,  and  pure  food. 

Eugene  H.  Porter ^  Report^  igog^  New  Tori  State  Depart- 
ment of  Health. 

Next  after  himself,  man  owes  it  to  his  neighbor  to  be  well,  and  to 

avoid  disease  in  order  that  he  may  impose  no  burden  upon  that  neighbor. 

Dr.  William  T.  Sedgwick^   The  Call  to  Public  Health. 


38 


CHAPTER   III 

HOPE 

THE  real  significance  of  biological  evo- 
lution has  not  been  grasped  by  the 
people  in  general.  It  is  that  man  is  a  part 
of  organic  nature,  subject  to  laws  of  devel- 
opment and  growth,  laws  which  he  cannot 
break  with  impunity.  It  is  his  business  to 
study  the  forces  of  Nature  and  to  conquer 
his  environment  by  submitting  to  the,  in- 
evitable. Only  then  will  man  gain  con- 
trol of  the  conditions  which  affect  his  own 
well-being. 

Sickness,  we  know,  is  the  result  of  break- 
ing some  law  of  universal  nature.  What 
that  law  may  be,  investigators  in  scores  of 
laboratories  are  endeavoring  to  determine. 
In  most  diseases  they  have  been  successful. 
Those  remaining  are  being  attacked  on  all 
sides,  and  it  may  be  confidently  predicted 
that  a  few  years  will  see  success  assured. 

Why,  then,  does  sickness  continue  to  be 
the  greatest  drain  upon  individual  and  na- 

39 


40  EUTHENICS 

tional  resources?  Because  man,  through 
ignorance  or  unbelief,  will  not  avail  himself 
of  this  knowledge,  or  is  behind  the  times  in 
his  method.  Where  wisdom  means  effort 
and  discomfort,  many  feel  it  folly  to  be 
wise. 

The  individual  may  be  wise  as  to  his 
own  needs,  but  powerless  by  himself  to 
secure  the  satisfaction  of  them.  Certain 
concessions  to  others'  needs  are  always  made 
in  family  life.  The  community  is  only  a 
larger  family  group,  and  social  conscious- 
ness must  in  time  take  into  account  social 
welfare.  Moreover,  a  neighbor  may  pol- 
lute the  water  supply,  foul  the  air,  and 
adulterate  the  food.  This  is'  the  penalty 
paid  for  living  in  groups.  Men  band  to- 
gether, therefore,  to  protect  a  common 
water  supply,  to  suppress  smoke,  dust,  and 
foul  gases  which  render  the  common  air  un- 
fit to' breathe.  The  State  helps  the  group  to 
protect  itself  from  bad  food  as  it  does  from 
destruction  of  property. 

The  development  of  fire  protection  is  a 
good  example  of  community  effort.  The 
isolated   farmhouse  may  have  buckets  of 


EUTHENICS  41 

water  and  blankets  in  an  accessible  place 
with  which  to  put  out  an  incipient  fire. 
Then  eight  or  ten  families  build  close  to- 
gether. The  danger  of  one  becomes  the 
danger  of  all,  and  a. fire  brigade  is  organized 
that  may  protect  all.  When  hundreds  of 
families  crowd  together  in  a  small  space 
the  danger  becomes  so  much  the  greater 
that  a  paid  department  with  efficient  appa- 
ratus is  necessary.  No  one  complains  of 
the  infraction  of  individual  rights.  Each 
one  is  glad  to  pay  his  share  of  the  expense. 

In  securing  protection  from  other  dan- 
gers, the  individual  and  the  family  unit  are 
fast  relying  on  community  regulations.  In 
fact,  in  many  ways  the  individual,  when  he 
becomes  one  of  a  crowd,  must  go  whither 
the  crowd  goes  and  at  the  same  rate  of 
progress. 

Failure  to  recognize  that  by  coming  into 
the  community  he  has  forfeited  his  right  to 
unrestrained  individuality  causes  an  irrita- 
tion as  unreasonable  as  harmful. 

A  certain  control  of  sanitary  conditions 
must  be  delegated  to  the  community  and  its 
rules  cheerfully  followed.     The  legal  as- 


42     '  EUTHENICS 

pects  of  these  rules  will  be  considered  in  a 
later  chapter.  Here  is  to  be  considered 
only  the  mental  attitude  with  which  the 
members  of  the  community  should  come 
together  to  agree  upon  a  common  defense 
against  disease  and  dirt.  The  spirit  of  co- 
operation must  prevail  over  a  tendency  to 
antagonism  when  certain  individual  rights 
seem  to  be  involved. 

Numbers  of  families  living  close  to- 
gether are  served  by  the  same  grocer  or 
market  man.  These  families  may  agree 
upon  their  requirements  as  to  quality  and 
cleanliness  and  publish  their  rules.  If  they 
do  not  take  interest  enough  to  protect  them- 
selves, the  community  must  make  rules  for 
them.  If  the  local  officials  are  not  vigilant 
enough,  the  State  may  step  in  and  compel 
the  observance  of  sanitary  regulations. 

The  average  citizen  learns  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  health  regulation  when  he  is 
warned  that  he  has  broken  it,  or  perhaps  is 
fined.  His  first  attitude  is  rebellion  at  the 
invasion  of  his  personal  liberty.  The  house- 
wife usually  takes  the  ground  that  the  rule 
is  absurd  or  unnecessary. 


EUTHENIGS  43 

When,  in  the  interest  of  the  community, 
any  law  is  to  be  enforced,  how  are  the  peo- 
ple to  be  led  from  this  rebellious  state  of 
mind?  Perhaps  first  through  authority. 
In  America  we  have  learned  to  use  the 
phrase,  ^^Big  Stick."  Authority  is  exactly 
that;  it  is  coercion  from  without.  It  has 
partial  result  in  good;  the  law  may  be  ful- 
filled because  the  individual  knows  he  must 
obey  when  within  the  jurisdiction  of  that 
law;  but  if  the  result  is  simply  obedi- 
ence to  authority  and  not  to  the  underlying 
principle,  it  will  not  be  a  force  in  his  life 
or  be  continued  if  by  chance  he  can  escape 
it.  He  will  be  a  "tramp"  in  his  methods 
of  obedience.  This  method  can  never  be 
constructive;  its  value  lies  in  the  possibility 
that  by  continuous  usage  or  repetition  the 
procedure  may  become  a  habit,  and  from 
habit  will  come  reason  and  intelligence. 

But  the  more  direct  and  efficient  way  to 
help  the  individual  to  realize  his  relation  to 
communal  right  living  is  through  education. 
The  former  method — blind  obedience — 
will  foster  the  spirit  of  antagonism  and  call 
the  State's  protection  "interference,"  thus 


44  EUTHENICS 

weakening  the  efficiency  of  the  State  and  of 
the  individual,  for  the  State  is  the  multipli- 
cation of  its  citizens;  but  through  the  latter 
method  the  individual  will  carry  out  the 
law  with  intelligence  and  interest.  This 
will  be  constructive  and  it  will  be  perma- 
nent, for  again,  if  the  State  is  the  sum  of 
its  citizens,  the  efficiency  of  the  State  is  the 
sum  of  the  efficiency  of  the  citizens. 

Their  interests  are  now  identical,  the 
man  has  become  equal  master  with  the 
State;  they  are  co-partners.  His  motive  for 
right  living  is  greater  than  the  letter  of  the 
law,  for  he  is  the  living  law,  the  protest 
against  wrong  and  the  fulfillment  of  the 
right. 

The  next  generation  must  be  born  with 
healthy  bodies,  must  be  nurtured  in  healthy 
physical  and  moral  environments,  and  must 
be  filled  with  ambition  to  give  birth  to  a 
still  healthier,  still  nobler  generation.  But, 
as  has  been  said,  "whatever  improvements 
may  sometime  be  achieved,  the  benefits  of 
their  influence  can  be  enjoyed  only  by 
future,    perhaps    distantly    future    genera- 


EUTHENICS  45 

tions.  We  of  the  present  have  to  take  our 
heredity  as  we  find  it.  We  cannot  follow 
the  advice  of  a  humorous  philosopher  to 
begin  life  by  selecting  our  grandparents; 
but  through  hygiene  (sanitary  science)  we 
can  make  the  most  of  our  endowment."^ 

There  is  a  force  in  the  development  of 
public  opinion  somewhere  between  indi- 
vidual action  and  national  compulsion 
which  may  be  termed  "semi-public"  action. 
It  is  in  a  measure  the  same  sort  of  influence 
that  in  a  later  chapter  is  termed  "stimula- 
tive education."  For  instance,  a  hospital 
for  the  treatment  of  some  special  ailment  is 
needed.  Private  enterprise  furnishes  the 
capital,  proves  the  success  of  the  treatment, 
and  then  the  community  comes  forward  and 
supports  the  institution.  Such  helps  are 
accepted  freely  and  are  not  considered  un- 
democratic. 

The  less  spectacular  but  more  effective 
office  of  prevention  of  the  need  for  charity, 
in  the  maintenance  of  cleanness  in  the  mar- 
kets, streets,  and  shops,  yes,  even  in  the 
homes  9f  the  people,  has  been  neglected. 
Through    lack    of    belief,    and    especially 

1  Report  on  National  Vitality,  p.  55. 


46  EUTHENICS 

through  inattention  to  causes  so  common  as 
to  escape  notice,  many  details  of  great  hy- 
gienic importance  have  been  overlooked. 

Some  daring  ones  in  commercial  ven- 
tures are  showing  the  possibilities  of  a 
standard  in  cleanness,  and  model  establish- 
ments, dairies,  bakeries,  and  restaurants 
should  receive  the  hearty  support  of  a  com- 
munity. If  they  do  not  receive  this  sup- 
port, it  is  more  than  discouraging  to  the 
promoters,  for  if  costs  to  be  clean^  a  lesson 
the^community  must  learn.  The  saving  of 
money  and  the  consequent  loss  of  life 
through  disease,  or  the  spending  of  money 
and  the  saving  of  life  through  prevention, 
are  the  alternatives. 

Undoubtedly  the  old  view  of  charity  as 
tenderly  caring  for  the  sick — because  there 
must  always  be  a  certain  amount  of  sick- 
ness in  the  world— has  held  hien  back  from 
attempting  to  make  a  world  without  sick- 
ness. The  charity  worker  of  the  past  had 
no  hope  of  really  making  things  better 
permanently. 

The  new  view,  based  upon  scientific 
investigation,  is  that  it  is  not  charity  that 


EUTHENICS  47 

is  needed  to  support  invalids  who  once 
stricken  must  fade  away,  but  preventive 
action  to  give  the  patient  hope  and  fresh 
air.  Most  important  of  all,  the  experi- 
ence already  gained  shows  how  far  from 
the  truth  was  the  old  fatalistic  notion  of  the 
necessary  continuance  of  disease. 

While  the  support  of  many  agencies — 
dispensaries,  clinics,  hospitals,  sanatoria, 
etc. — must  for  a  time  depend  upon  private 
philanthropy,  the  expense  is  in  the  nature 
of  an  investment  to  bring  in  a  high  rate  of 
interest  in  the  future  welfare  of  the  race. 
As  soon  as  the  belief  in  the  efficiency  of 
these  agents  reaches  the  taxpayer  he  will 
willingly  furnish  the  funds  for  public 
agencies. 

Today  the  child  in  the  school  is  exam- 
ined ;  then,  if  need  be,  is  given  special  con- 
sideration at  the  dispensary,  then  sent  to 
school,  where,  with  fresh  air,  pure  food, 
and  hygienic  surroundings,  he  will  so 
strengthen  himself  as  to  combat  the  ravages 
of  disease. 

The  Association  for  the  Improvement 
of  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  New  York 


48  EUTHENICS 

City,  not  only  sends  bread  to  fill  the  hungry 
stomach,  but  now  sends  a  wise  and  sympa- 
thetic worker  to  help  women  to  understand 
food  and  money  values,  which  means  a  per- 
manent help.  And  it  no  longer  simply  says 
to  the  tired,  worried  woman  who  has  had  no 
education-stimulus  along  the  line  of  clean- 
ness, "Be  clean,"  but  sends  in  women  to 
make  the  house  an  example,  an  exhibit  of 
clean  conditions,  if  you  will.  Example  is 
stronger  than  precept. 

In  the  rapid  growth  of  cities,  so  often 
beyond  anticipation,  preparation  for  de- 
velopment or  plans  for  extension  have 
seldom  been  laid.  Much  suffering  has  been 
wrought  to  the  families  of  men  in  our 
crowded  cities,  for  there  is  no  greater  evil 
than  the  congestion  of  streets  and  buildings. 

Many  students  of  social  conditions  of 
today  believe  that  the  most  serious  menace 
is  the  situation  best  described  as  housing — 
the  site,  the  crowding,  the  bad  building, 
poor  water  supply  and  drainage,  lack  of 
light  and  air  and  cleanliness.  All  believe 
that  it  is  economically  a  loss  to  the  city  in 
general,  however  profitable  to  a  very  few. 


EUTHENICS  49 

To  rent  such  buildings  is  a  far  greater  crime 
than  cruelty  to  animals  or  even  the  beating 
of  women  and  children. 

But  groups  of  people  the  wide  world 
over  are  keenly  awake  to  this  state  of  affairs, 
and  though  the  problem  is  tremendous  they 
are  trying  in  numerous  ways  to  solve  it. 

In  some  cities  there  are  at  present  organ- 
izations urging  "city  planning,"  while  in 
several  foreign  cities  the  municipality  has 
already  made  regulations.  In  some  cities 
there  are  municipal  model  tenements,  but 
this  is  still  a  project  of  too  small  proportions 
to  affect  the  community. 

Perhaps  no  modern  movement  that  com- 
prehends both  the  city  planning  and  the 
housing  of  the  working  people  is  more  ideal 
than  the  "Garden  Cities"  movement  in 
England  and  the  other  countries  following 
it. 

If  there  is  any  spot  on  which  the  hand 
of  the  law  should  be  laid,  it  is  the  congested 
districts  in  cities  and  mill  villages.  The 
evil  has  grown  to  such  magnitude  that  the 
first  steps  will  mean  some  drastic  measures. 

The  author  has  elsewhere  called  it  the 


50  EUTHENICS 

Capitalists'  Opportunity.  Instead  of  invest- 
ing in  an  uncertain  gold  mine  in  some  dis- 
tant land,  let  the  millions,  for  no  less  sum 
will  suffice,  be  invested  in  a  plot  of  land, 
whether  an  open  field  or  a  slum  district 
depends  on  local  conditions,  and  thereon 
cause  to  be  erected  habitations  decently 
comfortable,  wholly  sanitary,  and  place 
over  each  group  an  inspector  as  both  agent 
and  teacher  who  shall  be  a  friend  to  the 
tenants,  and  to  whose  office  they  may  come 
freely  with  their  needs.  This  plan  has  been 
in  part  carried  out  in  the  Model  Tenements 
in  New  York,  but  variations  and  improve- 
ments are  needed.  There  should  be  more 
light  and  air,  more  grass  and  trees,  even  if 
the  buildings  are  fifteen-story  towers. 

The  old  story  has  been  so  often  reiter- 
ated, "But  the  tenants  will  not  use  the 
devices,"  that  the  capitalist  has  become  cal- 
lous to  this  appeal.  The  missing  link  in 
the  chain  has  been  the  instruction  to  go  with 
the  construction. 

All  department  stores,  all  venders  of 
new  mechanical  appliances,  have  come  to 
recognize  the  value  of  demonstration,  or 


',/ 


EUTHENICS  5 

instruction,  in  the  use  of  articles  as  an  aid 
to  purchase.  The  advocate  of  better  dwell- 
ings must  take  a  leaf  from  the  commercial 
book  and  show  how.  It  is  in  this  that  phi- 
lanthropy has  been  weak  in  the  past.  It 
has  assumed  a  power  to  see,  where  there 
was  only  a  fear  of  handling  the  strange 
objects. 

There  is  a  virgin  field  for  the  capitalist 
who  wishes  to  use  some  millions  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  country  to  build  a  short 
trolley  line  to  a  district  of  sanitary  houses 
with  gardens,  playgrounds,  entertainment 
halls,  etc.;  such  a  village  to  contain,  not 
long  blocks,  but  both  separate  houses  and 
tenements  from  two  rooms  up,  possibly 
several  stories  high,  where  the  elders  may 
have  light  and  air  without  the  confusion  of 
the  street.  Dust  and  noise  will  be  elimi- 
nated. There  should  be  a  central  bakery 
and  laundry,  and,  most  important  of  all, 
an  office  where  both  men  and  women  skilled 
in  sanitary  and  economic  practical  affairs 
may  be  found  ready  to  go  to  any  home  and 
advise  on  any  subject.  There  has  never  yet 
been  such  an  enterprise  with  all  the  ele- 


52  EUTHENICS 

ments  worked  out.  Several,  however,  have 
shown  the  way,  the  Morris  houses  in  Brook- 
lyn, for  example. 

It  is  easier  to  take  a  city  block  and  con- 
struct fireproof,  high  buildings  than  to  solve 
transportation  problems.  We  are  losing 
our  fear  of  the  high  buildings  as  we  see 
the  great  value  of  light  and  air.  There  is 
chance  for  work  in  this  direction,  for  in 
spite  of  rapid  transit  some  must  live  in  the 
center  of  things. 

Let  a  philanthropist  or  two,  instead  of 
building  hospitals,  set  some  bright  young 
architects  and  sanitarians  to  devising  such 
suitable  housing  conditions  for  city  and 
suburbs  as  will  obviate  the  necessity  for 
hospitals.  Any  lover  of  his  kind,  any  one 
who  longs  for  fame,  could  find  both  it  and 
the  blessing  of  the  homeless  by  this  means, 
and  in  the  end  get  a  fair  return  for  his 
investment. 

The  Federal  Department  of  Labor^  has 
studied  workingmen's  houses,  but  living 
in  the  house  has  not  been  worked  up. 
The  housewife  has  no  station  to  which  she 

1  Bulletin  No.  54. 


EUTHENICS  53 

may  carry  her  trials,  like  the  experiment 
stations  which  have  been  provided  for  the 
farmer.  Here  is  another  opportunity  for 
the  capitalist  to  hasten  the  time  when  the 
State  will  supply  these.  The  way  will  very 
soon  be  laid  out  and  the  first  steps  taken. 

For  the  immediate  present  some  stand- 
ard of  healthful  housing  is  needed,  and  now 
that  a  similar  type  of  house  and  of  apart- 
ment house  is  being  built  in  all  cities  and 
towns  from  one  ocean  to  the  other,  and  from 
Texas  to  Maine,  such  a  standard  is  compati- 
ble with  conditions. 

A  score  card  for  houses  to  rent  would 
save  much  wrangling.  The  agent  shows  the 
card  with  this  house's  rating,  and  the  tenant 
learns  that  some  of  his  wishes  are  incom- 
patible with  the  standard,  and  some  would 
mean  a  much  higher  rent  than  he  is  willing 
to  pay.  Professor  J.  R.  Commons,  Depart- 
ment of  Economics,  University  of  Wiscon- 
sin, has  devised  a  score  card  to  serve  the 
house  hunter  and  householder  as  a  standard 
of  comparison.  This  should  serve  the  house 
builder  as  well,  indicating  what  the  demand 
will  be  forty  or  fifty  years  hence. 


54  EUTHENICS 

At  present  the  rating  stands  somewhat  as 
follows : 

Dwelling,  lOO  points 
Location,  i8  points  out  of  lOO 
Congestion  of  buildings,  26  points 

Common  entrance  for  two  or  more,  discredit  2  points 

Basement,  discredit  5  points 

Sunlight,  credit  16  points  of  the  26 
Window  openings,  1 1  points 
Air  and  ventilation,  13  points 
Structural  condition,  6  points 
House  appurtenances,  26  points 

Well  outside,  discredit  3  points 

The  final  score  card  may  vary  some- 
what. 

For  rent  collectors  there  is  also  a  score 
card. 

Occupants,  100  points 
Congestion  of  occupancy,  61  points  cubic  air  space 
1,000  cu.  ft.  per  person,  no  discredit 

600  cu.  ft.  per  person  discredits  20  points 
Condition  of  air  and  ventilation,  18  points 
Cleanliness,  21  points 

A  score  card  movement  might  be  started 
as  a  hobby,  and  in  the  end  lead  public 
opinion  to  judicial  choice  and  action.  No 
such  movement,  however,  is  possible  with- 
out leaders,  and  leaders  of  the  right  type. 


EUTHENICS  55 

The  lesson  for  the  community  to  be 
drawn  from  a  study  of  crowd  psychology 
is  that  of  leadership  and  loyal  cooperation. 
The  common  man  is  likely  to  be  possessed 
of  one  idea  at  a  time.  If  such  an  one  be- 
comes a  leader,  there  is  danger  that  equally 
vital  factors  will  be  overlooked.  Safety  is 
found  in  a  combination  of  leaders  to  make 
an  all-round  improvement. 

Each  individual  is  too  busy  in  his  own 
afifairs  to  look  after  his  own,  much  less  his 
neighbor's,  health  and  comfort,  hence  com- 
munity life,  with  its  advantages,  brings  its 
own  dangers.  Children  in  school  in  contact 
with  other  children ;  crowds  in  trains,  in  ele- 
vators, stores,  in  lecture  halls,  contract  habits 
as  well  as  diseases.  The  need  for  large 
quantities  of  supplies  at  one  point  brings 
long-distance  transportation  and  cold  stor- 
age difficulties.  The  man  who  caters  to 
public  need  does  not  look  far  ahead  to  con- 
sequences, and  if  unrestrained  may  prove 
more  of  a  menace  than  a  convenience. 

The  safe  and  reasonable  way  is  to  dele- 
gate to  certain  persons  the  making  and  en- 
forcement of  regulations  corresponding  to 


56  EUTHENICS 

the  needs  of  the  times,  and  then  to  obey 
them,  even  at  some  personal  inconvenience. 
Each  community  should  put  into  the 
hands  of  its  health  officers  the  carrying  out 
of  the  rules  it  has  agreed  to  as  an  insurance 
against  outbreaks  of  disease.  Does  a  man 
let  his  fire  insurance  policy  lapse  because 
the  year  has  passed  without  a  fire?  Even 
if  the  regulation  seems  superfluous  to  the 
particular  individual  or  family,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  there  are  inflammable 
spots  in  every  community.  Eternal  vigi- 
lance is  the  price  of  safety  in  sanitary  as 
well  as  in  military  affairs.  As  in  the  army, 
the  community  must  delegate  scout  duty  to 
certain  chosen  individuals  and  rely  on  their 
report  for  safety. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Interchangeahleness  of  these  two  forms  of 
progressive  effort.  First  one,  then  the  other 
ahead. 


Preventive  medicine  is  the  viratchword  of  the  hour,  and  enlistment  in 
the  cause  can  come  only  through  education.   .   .   . 

He  who  understands  the  dangers  is  thrice  armed,  and  is  trained  and 
entitled  to  enlist  in  the  home  guard  to  protect  the  health  of  his  household 
and  neighbors.  Dr.  M.  H.  RosenaUy  Harvard  Medical  School. 

The  next  generation  of  parents  is  being  made  strong  or  weak  in  home 
and  school  today  by  an  environment  furnished  by  parents  and  teachers. 
These  latter  cannot  be  too  well  instructed  in  physiology,  hygiene,  and 
biology.  Prof.   John   Tyler ^  The  Responsibility  of  the  Medical  Pro- 

fession for  Public  Education  in  Hygiene. 

The  new  view  is  a  social  view,  which  seeks  in  all  movements,  whether 
of  research  or  of  remedial  action,  for  the  common  welfare. 

Edward  Deviney  Social  Forces. 

Democracy  means  that  the  best  of  all  life  is  for  all,  and  that  if  there 
are  many  incapable  of  entering  into  it,  then  they  must  be  helped  to  become 
capable.  Ralph  Barton  Perry ,  The  Moral  Economy. 

If  the  child  is  not  only  in  theory  but  in  practice  recognized  as  the 
main  interest  in  society,  the  family  and  society  will  more  and  more  assist 
the  mother  in  his  nurture. 

fy.  I.  Thomas,  Tf^omen  and  Their  Occupations. 

Health  administration  cannot  rise  far  above  the  hygienic  standards  of 
those  who  provide  the  means  for  administering  sanitary  law.  The  tax- 
paying  public  must  believe  in  the  economy,  utility,  and  necessity  of  efficient 
health  administration.  fFm.  H.  Allen,  Civics  and  Health. 

The  connection  between  poverty  and  ill  health  is  so  direct,  so  imme- 
diate, and  so  important  that  the  moment  any  individual  or  society  turns 
its  attention  to  the  causes  of  poverty,  that  moment  it  finds  itself  in  the 
thick  of  the  public  health  movement. 

Homer  Folks,  Journal  Public  Hygiene,  November,  igog. 


58 


CHAPTER   IV 

FAITH  AND   HOPE 

PROGRESS  is  a  series  of  zigzags:  now 
the  individual  goes  ahead  of  the  com- 
munity; now  the  community  outstrips  the 
individual. 

The  community  cannot  rise  much  above 
the  level  of  the  individual  home,  and  the 
home  rises  only  by  the  pull  of  the  commu- 
nity regulations,  or  by  the  initiative  of  a  few 
especially  farsighted  individuals. 

The  steps  need  to  be  carefully  measured, 
for  if  the  family  begins  to  rely  on  the  State 
for  the  backbone  it  should  have,  it  will  not 
stay  up,  and  its  fall  will  be  lower  than  the 
stage  it  rose  from.  "When  man  reverts,  he 
goes  not  to  Nature,  but  to  death." 

The  example  set  by  the  city  in  maintain- 
ing clean  streets  and  well-kept  parks  reacts 
upon  the  home  yards.  The  insistence  by  the 
police  on  city  regulations  as  to  alleys  and 
garbage  educates  the  family  as  to  the  gen- 
eral attention  to  be  paid  to  such  things. 

59 


6o  EUTHENICS 

The  city  authorities,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  prodded  to  their  work  by  well-informed 
individuals  who  see  the  great  gain  to  the 
community  from  certain  measures. 

The  centers  of  movement,  civic  and 
quasi-religious  or  philanthropic,  are  usually 
the  outgrowth  of  individual  effort.  The 
great  movements  for  betterment — water 
supply,  street  cleaning,  tenement  laws,  etc. 
— are  carried  out  by  community  agreement 
with  a  common  tax  outlay. 

The  clean  city  means  streets  of  clean 
houses.  The  clean  house  in  the  midst  of  a 
dirty  city  may  be  the  match  to  start  a  fire  of 
cleansing. 

Probably  medical  inspection  in  the  pub- 
lic school  is  as  good  an  example  as  may 
be  given  of  helpfulness  to  the  community. 
No  quicker  means  of  influencing  both  home 
and  community  life  may  be  found,  for  in 
five  years  it  might  revolutionize  the  whole. 

School  buildings  should  be  so  con- 
structed and  so  managed  that  they  cannot 
themselves  either  produce  or  aggravate 
physical  defects.  Departments  of  school 
hygiene  should  be  organized,  not  only  in 


EUTHENICS  6 1 

every  city,  but  for  every  rural  school  under 
county  and  state  superintendents  of  instruc- 
tion. The  general  question  of  physical 
welfare  of  children  involves  too  many  con- 
siderations to  be  satisfactorily  treated  by 
school  physician  and  school  nurse  alone,  or 
by  busy  teachers  and  principals. 

"New  York  City  will  spend  in  1910 
$6,500  for  making  over  twenty  rooms  in 
regular  buildings,  a  first  step  in  an  entirely 
new  plan  of  ventilation,  which  will  eventu- 
ally give  outdoor  air  to  all  children,  sick 
or  well."' 

Speaking  generally,  America  is  one  of 
the  last  of  the  civilized  nations  to  deal  with 
the  subject  of  the  medical  inspection  of 
school  children  upon  a  comprehensive  and 
national  scheme.  But  once  aroused  to  the 
needs,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  nation  will 
speedily  educate  parents  to  correct  such 
home  conditions  as  reduce  the  child's  abil- 
ity to  profit  from  schooling,  and  to  persuade 
governments  to  see  that  safe  homes  are  pro- 
vided. It  will  be  easy  to  convince  the  tax- 
payer that  it  is  cheaper  to  provide  such  care 

1  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research. 


62  EUTHENICS 

than  to  neglect  the  future  parent  and  citi- 
zen, for  it  is  easy  to  prove  that  medical 
inspection  in  our  schools  returns  large  divi- 
dends on  small  investments.  Dr.  Luther 
Gulick  says  that  it  seems  probable,  though 
only  a  guess,  that  the  total  annual  expendi- 
ture for  medical  inspection  of  schools  in  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time  is  perhaps 
$500,000.  The  money  saved  by  enabling 
thousands  of  children  to  do  one  year's  work 
in  one  year,  instead  of  in  two  or  three  years, 
would  greatly  exceed  the  total  expense  of 
examining  all  children  in  all  boroughs."^ 

The  health  of  all  our  school  children 
should  be  conserved  by  a  system  of  compe- 
tent medical  inspection  which  should  se- 
cure the  correction  of  defects  of  eyes,  ears, 
teeth,  as  well  as  defects  due  to  infection  or 
malnutrition. 

The  statistics  of  medical  inspection  in 
public  schools  tell  a  pitiful  tale  wherever 
it  has  been  tried:  thirty  or  forty  per  cent  of 
the  children  are  found  with  defective  or 
diseased  eyes,  ten  to  twenty  per  cent  with 
distorted  spines,  fifteen  per  cent  with  throat 

1  Quoted  in  Report  on  National  Vitality,  p.  123. 


EUTHENICS  63 

and  nose  troubles,  all  of  which  directly 
affect  their  intellectual  proficiency. 

When  these  deficiencies  are  discovered 
and  reported  to  the  parents,  such  is  the 
apathy  of  disbelief  that  seventy-five  per 
cent  of  the  cases  usually  go  unattended; 
therefore  the  school  nurse,  who  follows  the 
case  home  and  explains  the  needs  and  sets 
forth  the  penalties,  has  become  a  necessity. 

The  parent  who  permits  his  child  to  go 
to  school  physically  unfitted  to  profit  from 
school  opportunity  is  not  only  injuring  his 
own  child,  but  is  injuring  his  neighbor's 
child,  and  is  taxing  that  neighbor  without 
the  latter's  consent. 

It  would  seem  as  if  such  parents  had 
forfeited  their  right  to  the  sole  care  of  the 
children,  and  that  government  would  be 
obliged,  for  its  own  protection,  to  step  in 
and  do  the  work  while  it  is  needed.  The 
author  has  termed  this  temporary  paternal- 
ism. The  providing  of  penny  lunches  dur- 
ing the  morning  recess,  the  service  of  the 
school  nurse  and  the  home  visitor  to  teach 
those  parents  who  are  willing  to  learn  all 
these  schemes  for  the  saving  of  the  child, 


64  EUTHENICS 

may  be  carried  out  in  a  spirit  of  helpfulness 
with  a  support  which  may  be  withdrawn 
when  no  longer  needed. 

Although  all  America  has  not  become 
aroused  to  the  undoubted  fact  of  tendencies 
toward  physical  deterioration,  it  is  on  the 
verge  of  an  awakening.  The  public  school 
is  the  natural  medium  for  the  spread  of 
better  ideals,  and  if  the  teachers  of  cooking 
and  of  hygiene  w^ould  cooperate  and  use  all 
the  material  which  sanitary  science  is  heap- 
ing on  the  table  before  them,  we  should 
soon  see  a  betterment  of  the  physical  status. 
Combined  with  medical  inspection  and 
sanitary  construction  of  schoolhouses,  this 
would  raise  the  general  health  of  the  com- 
munity thirty  or  forty  per  cent  in  five  years 
and  fifty  to  seventy  per  cent  in  ten  years. 

There  has  been  in  some  quarters  much 
objection  to  public  effort  towards  remedy- 
ing evils  which  would  not  have  existed  if 
each  family  had  lived  up  to  its  duties.  The 
community  is  a  larger  family,  with  greater 
resources,  and  can  employ  investigators  to 
find  the  means  for  greater  security.  That 
individual  is  very  foolish  who  does  not  rec- 


EUTHENICS  "  65 

ognize  this  interaction  between  community 
and  individual,  and  who  objects  to  taking 
the  benefits  of  the  larger  knowledge. 

To  take  one  of  the  latest  examples  of 
social  problems :  In  every  thousand  children 
in  the  public  schools  of  any  city,  probably  of 
the  town  also,  there  are  perhaps  fifty  who 
are  ill-nourished  (not  necessarily  under- 
fed), ill-clothed,  unwashed,  and  deprived 
of  good  air  for  sleeping.  What  is  the  duty 
of  the  public?  This  is  one  of  the  burning 
questions  of  the  moment.  Send  missionary 
teachers  to  the  homes,  some  say,  but  that  is 
costly;  the  selection  of  the  suitable  mission- 
ary is  difficult,  and  the  result  may  be  slight. 
Others  say,  give  one  good  luncheon  at  the 
school,  for  which  the  children  pay  in  part 
or  in  whole,  and  make  that  an  education 
which,  by  the  aid  of  the  school  nurse,  will 
in  time  affect  a  change  in  habit.  In  short, 
the  problem  is  this:  Shall  the  children  suffer 
in  childhood  and  become  a  burden  on  soci- 
ety in  adult  years,  or  shall  society  protect 
itself  from  future  expense  by  community 
care  now?  ^^  Because  finding  diseases  and 
defects    does   not   protect   children    unless 


66  EUTHENICS 

discovery  is  followed  by  treatment^  fifty- 
eight  cities  take  children  to  dispensaries 
or  instruct  at  schoolhouses ;  fifty-eight  send 
nurses  from  house  to  house  to  instruct  par- 
ents and  to  persuade  them  to  have  their 
families  cared  for;  loi  send  out  cards  of 
instruction  to  parents  either  by  mail  or  the 
children;  while  157  cities  have  arranged 
special  cooperation  with  dispensaries,  hos- 
pitals, and  relief  societies  for  giving  the 
children  the  shoes  or  clothing  or  medical 
and  dental  care  which  is  found  necessary."  ^ 
Nearly  all  preventive  measures  adopted 
by  society  and  ranked  as  paternalism  by 
timid  philanthropists  are  or  may  be  edu- 
cative and  temporary  at  the  same  time. 
They  may  be  dropped  as  soon  as  the  end  is 
gained.  The  attention  of  parents  must  be 
called  to  neglected  duties.  Compulsory 
attention  to  such  duties  as  affect  the  wards 
of  society,  the  children,  may  be  needed  for 
a  time.  Just  as  the  wise  father,  taking  the 
child  for  a  walk,  allows  him  to  run  free  as 
soon  as  his  strength  and  courage  permit,  so 
the  paternalism  of  society  is  relaxed  as  soon 

1  Bulletin,  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research. 


EUTHENICS  67 

as  its  protegees  show  themselves  both  able 
and  willing  to  do  the  right  thing  without  its 
aid  or  command. 

Compulsory  school  attendance  places  re- 
sponsibility for  certain  care,  vaccination, 
decent  clothing,  good  food,  decent  shelter. 
The  thousand  and  one  ways  in  which  soci- 
ety is  now  protecting  itself  are  all  educating 
the  newcomers  to  American  ideals.  They 
are  all  intended  to  make  efficient,  self-sus- 
taining citizens  who  do  not  feel  the  pull  of 
the  law  or  the  bond  of  outside  care.  It 
is  the  last  conflict  between  the  ideals  of  indi- 
vidualism and  those  of  the  community  need, 
subordinating  the  individual  preference. 
Much  wisdom  and  forbearance  will  be 
needed  to  secure  this  community  ideal,  but 
in  that  way  evidently  lies  progress.  It  be- 
hooves the  leaders  of  social  effort  to  make 
all  their  work  educational,  and  thus  remove 
the  necessity  for  a  repetition  in  the  future. 

Just  as  the  parent  in  the  home  estab- 
lishes habits  while  the  child's  mind  is  plas- 
tic, so  the  community  stands  in  loco  parentis 
to  the  future  citizen,  and  surrounds  him 
with  safeguards  while  needed.    Knowledge 


68  EUTHENICS 

is  needed,  scientific  investigation  is  funda- 
mental, expert  wisdom  is  indispensable, 
costly  though  it  is,  being  the  product  of 
long  research  and  rare  brain  power.  This 
is  at  the  service  of  the  nation  for  the  good 
of  all  the  people,  and  it  is  the  surer  the 
wider  the  range  of  experience.  For  this 
reason  chiefly,  greater  actual  knowledge 
and  more  complete  harmonizing  of  conflict- 
ing interests  is  necessary.  Certain  sanitary 
measures  are  carried  out  by  the  Federal 
government  as  an  education  to  communities, 
just  as  communities  educate  individuals. 
Federal  effort  may  be  unwisely  put  forth  in 
certain  cases,  investigations  of  little  conse- 
quence may  be  undertaken,  but  on  the  whole 
a  democracy  must  learn  to  manage  its  affairs 
by  making  mistakes.  The  principle  should 
not  be  discarded  as  a  result  of  the  first 
mistake. 

The  immediate  concern  of  this  chapter 
is  with  the  leaders  of  community  move- 
ments, the  educated,  sympathetic,  far- 
sighted  sociologists,  sanitarians,  and  econo- 
mists, whose  concern  is  for  the  advancement 
of    mankind.      These    leaders    must   have 


EUTHENICS  69 

courage  and  belief  in  the  value  of  their 
work,  for  no  half-hearted  means  will  carry 
the  community  forward.  Still  more,  they 
must  have  knowledge,  a  sure  ground  to  stand 
upon.  To  acquire  this  means  both  time  and 
opportunity.  To  go  into  betterment  work 
without  it  is  to  set  back  the  wheels  of  prog- 
ress, not  to  advance  them. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  child  to  be  ^' raised^'  as  he  should  be. 
Restraint  for  his  good.  Teaching  good 
habits  the  chief  duty  of  the  family. 


Our  success  or  failure  with  the  unending  stream  of  babies  (one  every 
eight  seconds)  is  the  measure  of  our  civilization  :  every  institution  stands 
or  falls  by  its  contribution  to  that  result,  by  the  improvement  of  the  chil- 
dren born  or  by  the  improvement  of  the  quality  of  births  attained  under  its 
mfluence.  H.  G.  fVellsy  Mankind  in  the  Making. 

Children  are  the  most  hopeful  element  of  our  population,  and  we  should 
concentrate  our  efforts  on  them. 

Dr.  W.  F.  Porter  J  Harvard  Medical  School  Lectures. 

We  want  the  mothers  to  be  the  health  officers  of  the  home. 

Charles  W.  Hewitt. 

When  human  beings  and  families  rationally  subordinate  their  own 
interests  as  perfectly  to  the  welfare  of  future  generations  as  do  animals 
under  the  control  of  instinct,  the  world  will  have  a  more  enduring  type 
of  family  life  than  exists  at  present.  This  can  only  be  accomplished  by 
the  development  of  controlling  ideals  which  are  supported  not  only  by 
reason  and  intelligence  but  by  ethical  impulse  and  religious  motive. 

The  home  should  be  considered  the  place  where  are  to  be  developed 
and  conveyed  the  precious  qualities  which  are  so  vital  to  the  continuity  of 
the  race  and  the  progress  of  human  society  and  civilization. 

Those  factors  which  are  of  a  more  material  or  physical  nature,  such 
as  shelter,  food,  dress,  and  personal  health,  are  to  be  estimated  in  their 
relation  to  mind,  character,  and  effective  conduct. 

In  the  confusion  of  relative  values  human  health  as  one  of  the  essential 
means  to  many  worthy  ends  is  usually  neglected.  Man  is  the  most  highly 
developed  of  all  species  of  animals.  He  is,  to  some  degree  at  least,  civi- 
lized, and  yet  human  beings  are  of  all  animals  the  sickliest,  and  this  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  human  health  is  more  important  to  man  and  to  the 
world  than  the  health  of  any  other  creature.  And  by  health  I  do  not 
mean  simply  existence,  freedom  from  pain,  or  absence  of  disease,  but 
rather  organic  power  and  efficiency,  the  maximum  vital  ability  possible  to 
the  individual  for  the  doing  of  all  that  seems  most  worth  while  in  life. 

Dr.  Thomas  D.  Wood,  Lake  Placid  Conference,  igo2. 


72 


CHAPTER  V 

RESPONSIBILITY 

THE  ideal  of  "home"  is  protection 
from  dangers  from  within — bad 
habits,  bad  food,  bad  air,  dirt  and  abuse, 
— shelter,  in  fact,  from  all  stunting  agencies, 
just  as  the  gardener  protects  his  tender 
plants  until  they  become  strong  enough  to 
stand  by  themselves.  The  child's  home 
environment  is  certainly  a  potent  factor  in 
his  future  efficiency. 

But  more  than  physical  protection  is 
that  education  in  all  that  goes  to  make  up 
profitable  living,  acquired  by  following  the 
mother  or  nurse  in  her  daily  round  and  in 
having  legitimate  questions  answered.  Imi- 
tation is  the  first  step  in  good  habits,  as  in 
learning  to  walk  or  to  read.  That  which 
is  set  before  the  child  should  be  worthy  its 
imitation,  and  be  of  value  when  fixed  as  a 
habit.  Habits  of  health,  correct  position, 
deep  breathing,  clean  ways,  distaste  for 
dirt  in  one's  person  or  in  one's  vicinity,  lik- 

73 


74  EUTHENICS 

ing  for  fresh  air,  for  simple  food,  good 
habits  of  exercise,  of  reading,  and  the  thou- 
sand and  one  trifles  that  go  to  make  up  the 
eflicient  worker  in  adult  years,  all  belong 
to  the  well-ordered  home,  where,  as  one 
author  puts  it,  the  child  is  the  business  of 
the  day. 

But  the  State  cannot  risk  its  property 
too  far. 

When  mothers  become  so  careless  or 
ignorant  that  half  their  children  fail  to 
reach  their  first  birthday,  and  of  those  that 
live  to  be  three  years  old  a  majority  are 
defrauded  of  their  birthright  of  health, 
some  agency  must  step  in. 

If  the  State  is  to  have  good  citizens  it 

"^  must  provide  for  the  teaching  of  the  essen- 

^  tials  to  a  generation  that  will  become  the 

wiser   mothers    and   fathers   of   the    next. 

Therefore,  even  if  we  regard  this  as  only 

a  temporary  expedient,  we  must  begin  to 

-  teach  the  children  in  our  schools,  and  begin 
at  once,  that  which  we  see  they  are  no 

-  longer  learning  in  the  home.    "  The  achieve- 
^    ment  at  Huddersfield,   England,   is  espe- 
cially  noteworthy.     The   average    annual 


EUTHENICS  75 

number  of  deaths  of  infants  for  ten  years 
had  been  310.  By  a  systematic  education 
of  mothers  the  number  was  in  1907  reduced 
to  212.  The  cost  of  saving  these  ninety- 
eight  lives  was  about  $2,000."  ^ 

One  university  has  established  a  course 
in  the  care  of  children,  much  to  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  press.  The  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Education  has,  however,  been 
a  responsible  mover  in  the  idea. 

But  real  progress  by  means  of  family 
education  means  the  stable  family  and  the 
permanent  dwelling.  Where  is  the  family 
in  the  permanent  dwelling  today?  Among 
any  class,  except  the  agricultural,  where  is 
the  stable  family? 

Since  industry  has  taken  woman's  work 
from  her,  and  she  has  to  follow  it  out  into 
the  world,  the  means  of  education  for  the 
child  has  gone  from  the  home.  Its  atmos- 
phere is  artificial,  if  the  attempt  is  made. 

To  work  exclusively  on  the  family,  for 
the  sake  of  the  child,  is  a  very  slow  process. 
As  in  all  American  life,  the  quicker  method 
appeals  most  strongly.    The  school  is  today 

1  Dr.  Charles  H.  Chapin. 


76  EUTHENICS 

the  quickest  means  of  reaching  both  child 
and  home;  the  present  home  through  the 
child,  and  the  future  homes  through  the 
children  when  they  grow  up. 

And  time  presses!  A  whole  generation 
has  been  lost  because  the  machine  ran  wild 
without  guidance,  and  all  attempt  at  im- 
provement was  met  by  futile  resistance. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  present  the  socion- 
omist's  view  of  the  child  in  the  home  so 
that  it  may  appeal  to  the  two  extremes  of 
opinion.  There  are  those  who  still  apply 
mediaeval  rules  to  twentieth  century  liv- 
ing; those  who  believe,  honestly,  that  the 
ideal  life  was  found  in  the  days  when  the 
mother  was  the  manufacturer  in  her  own 
home  and  the  children  were  her  helpers  in 
all  the  varied  processes.  "There  was  never 
any  artificial  teaching  devised  so  good  for 
children  as  the  daily  helping  in  the  house- 
hold tasks.''  The  inference  is  made  that 
therefore  the  same  restriction  for  the  mother 
and  the  children  leads  to  an  ideal  life  today. 
Such  persons  fail  to  realize  that  the  twenti- 
eth century  is  practically  a  new  world.  The 
old  rules  which  related  to  material  things 


EUTHENICS  'J'] 

hardly  hold  more  closely  than  they  would 
on  the  planet  Mars.  The  fundamental 
moral  principles  of  reverence,  obedience, 
love,  and  unselfish  sacrifice  must  be  worked 
in  on  a  new  background. 

To  keep  the  eighteenth  century  habit, 
so  carefully  taught  the  girl,  of  courtesying 
as  she  stepped  aside  to  allow  the  rider  or 
the  ox  cart  to  pass,  in  these  days  of  the 
swift  automobile,  which  would  be  out  of 
sight  before  the  knee  could  bend,  is  no 
more  ridiculous  than  to  expect  the  average 
young  mother  to  follow  the  methods  of  her 
grandmother.  Her  mother's  ways  are  now 
pronounced  all  wrong,  not  necessarily  be- 
cause they  were  wrong  then,  but  because 
conditions  have  changed,  knowledge  has 
been  gained,  and  it  is  clearly  a  waste  of 
human  life,  of  money,  of  physical  and 
mental  power  for  people  to  be  sick  and  die 
because  the  caretaker  does  not  use  the 
knowledge  in  circulation. 

If  the  young  mother  can  learn  how 
better  to  fulfill  her  duties  by  going  out  of 
the  house  to  lectures  or  classes,  why  not? 

Tracts  are  not  always  successful  as  an 


78  EUTHENICS 

incentive  to  conduct.  It  is  obviously  im- 
possible to  pass  a  blue  law  compelling 
parents  to  conform  to — what  ideal?  The 
school  is  fast  taking  the  place  of  the  home, 
not  because  it  wishes  to  do  so,  but  because 
the  home  does  not  fulfill  its  function,  and 
so  far  has  not  been  made  to,  and  the  lack 
must  be  supplied.  The  personal  point  of 
view,  inculcated  now  by  modern  conditions 
of  strife  for  money,  just  as  surely  as  it  must 
have  been  by  barbarian  struggle  in  pre- 
civilized  days,  must  be  supplanted  by  the 
broad  view  of  majority  welfare.  The 
extreme  of  the  personal  point  of  view, 
expressed  in  such  phrases  as  ''The  world 
owes  me  a  living;"  ''My  child  is  mine  to 
treat  as  I  please;"  "It  is  nobody's  business 
how  I  spend  my  money;"  "I  have  a  right 
to  all  the  pleasure  I  can  get  out  of  life,"  is 
well  shown  in  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells's  analogy^: 
"A  cat's  standpoint  is  probably  strictly  indi- 
vidualistic. She  sees  the  whole  universe  as  a 
scheme  of  more  or  less  useful,  pleasurable, 
and  interesting  things  concentrated  upon 
her   sensitive   and   interesting   personality. 

1  Mankind  in  the  Making. 


EUTHENICS  79 

With  a  sinuous  determination  she  evades 
disagreeables  and  pursues  delights.  Life 
is  to  her  quite  clearly  and  simply  a  succes- 
sion of  pleasures,  sensations,  and  interests, 
among  which  interests  there  happen  to  be 
— kittens." 

This  unsuspicious  ignorance  of  the  real 
nature  of  life  is  by  no  means  confined  to 
animals  and  savages;  it  would  seem  to  be 
the  common  view  of  many  young  people 
today.  At  least  they  take  as  little  care  of 
the  homes  to  which  they  bring  children, 
and  they  follow  the  cat's  example  in  boxing 
the  children's  ears  and  turning  them  out  to 
fend  for  themselves. 

The  last  generation  seemed  to  become  - 
disciples  of  Schopenhauer  in  his  passionate  u 
rebellion  against  the  fate  that  deferred  all 
the  pleasure  of  the  present  to  the  needs  of  "* 
the  future  generation.     Evolution  has  re- 
vealed the  necessity  for  this  subordination 
of  the  individual  lot  to  the  destiny  of  the    ^ 
race,  if  progress  is  to  be  made.    The  man 
who  asserts  himself  as  free  from  race  tram- 
mels is  snuffed  out  as  a  factor — a  blighted 
blossom  fallen  to  earth  and  trodden  under 


8o  EUTHENICS 

foot.  To  the  student  of  biological  evolu- 
tion, the  individual  is  as  a  mere  pin  point 
on  the  chart  of  community  advance,  for 
surely  society  grows  according  to  evolu- 
tionary law.  "As  certainly  as  Nature  gives 
the  poor  child  its  chance  of  a  good  life, 
so  certainly  do  the  circumstances  of  slum 
environment  rob  it  forthwith  of  its  birth- 
right— it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  more 
than  half  the  children  of  three  years  of  age 
hanging  on  to  life  with  marks  of  disease 
and  undergrowth  firmly  implanted  on  their 
tender  frames.  Yet,  practically,  none  of  this 
is  inherited  in  the  true  sense;  it  is  the  vic- 
tory of  evil  human  devices  in  their  endeavor 
to  cheat  Nature  of  her  own.  If  ever  there 
was  a  mission  in  the  world  worthy  of  the 
most  strenuous  service,  it  is  to  wrest  back 
this  victory,  be  it  out  of  pity  for  suffering 
children  or  for  the  very  welfare  and  exist- 
ence of  the  nation. 

"The  schools  have  made  their  begin- 
ning; the  homes  have  not  yet  started;  they 
wait  the  impulse  from  without.  It  is  for 
voluntary,  intelligent  opinion  to  get  to  work 
on  the  home,  and  never  to  relax  until  a  race 


EUTHENICS  8 1 

of  parents  has  arisen  which  knows  no  other 
duty  to  the  state  than  to  rear  with  heart  and 
brain  the  children  which  have  been  given 
to  them.  Then  we  shall  hear  no  more  about 
physical  degeneracy.''^ 

Hope  for  the  future  is  to  be  found  in 
the  conclusions  of  the  immigration  commis- 
sion, that  in  one  generation  certain  marked 
changes  in  stature  and  in  head  measure- 
ments have  taken  place  in  the  children  of 
immigrants  of  various  nationalities,  such 
changes  as  have  hitherto  been  considered  as 
the  result  of  centuries.  The  commissioners 
credit  the  better  environment  and  larger 
opportunities  with  these  indications  of  in- 
creasing intellectuality  and  mental  force. 

Most  human  efficiency  is  the  result  of 
habits  rather  than  of  innate  ability.  These 
habits  of  mind,  as  well  as  of  body,  are  de- 
veloped by  the  home  life  at  an  early  age. 
The  home  is  responsible  for  the  upbringing 
of  healthy,  intelligent  children.  Here  is  the 
place  for  fostering  the  valuable  and  sup- 
pressing the  harmful  traits.    The  school  can 

^Dr.  H.  M.  Eichholz,   Inspector  of  Schools.      Paper  before  Confer- 
ence of  Women  Workers,  London,  1904. 


82  EUTHENICS 

never  take  the  place  of  the  home  in  this. 
With  the  large  classes  of  the  public  schools, 
the  teacher  should  not  be  asked  to  under- 
take this  individual  work.  Moreover,  cor- 
recting a  child  for  personal  habits  can 
hardly  be  effective  before  fifty  or  sixty  pairs 
of  critical  eyes. 

The  office  of  the  home  must  be  to  teach 
habits  of  right  living  and  daily  action,  and 
a  joy  and  pride  in  life  as  well  as  responsi- 
bility for  life.  It  is  not  fair  that  the  parents 
should  sit  back  and  shift  to  the  school  the 
whole  responsibility  for  the  future  citizen. 

The  little  modifications  can  best  be  made 
in  the  home,  permanent  foundations  can  be 
laid  and  braced  with  habits  so  good  and 
strong  that  nothing  can  shake  them.  Most 
powers  are  the  result  of  habits.  Let  the 
furrows  be  plowed  deeply  enough  while  the 
brain  cells  are  plastic,  then  human  energies 
will  result  in  efficiency  and  the  line  of  least 
resistance  will  be  the  right  line.  Every- 
thing, therefore,  which  influences  the  child 
must  be  the  best  known  to  science.  The 
houses  of  the  land  must  be  regulated  by  the 
Y    scientific    laws    of    right   living.     To    the 


EUTHENICS  83 

woman,  the  home  worker,  we  say:  "You 
must  have  the  will  power,  for  the  sake  of 
your  child,  to  bring  to  his  service  all  that 
has  been  discovered  for  the  promotion  of 
human  efficiency,  so  that  he  may  have  the 
habit,  the  technique. 

To  pay  a  tax  today  for  the  benefit  of 
one's  children  is  a  principle  of  insurance, 
of  benefit  association.  This  feeling  of 
obligation  means  present  sacrifice  of  ease 
and  inclination,  and  it  has  been  increasingly 
shirked,  so  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  a 
tax  to  insure  one  against  future  loss  by  dis- 
ease is  an  unwelcome  proposition. 

The  whole  question  of  the  child  in  the 
home  is  one  of  ethics,  as  the  writers  on 
social  conditions  have  been  trying  to  con- 
vince the  world.  If  the  swarms  of  dwellers 
in  the  busy  hives  of  industry  have  no  sense 
of  their  humanity,  if  they  do  not  use  the 
human  power  of  looking  ahead,  that  power 
which  differentiates  man  from  animals, 
what  better  are  they  than  animals? 

No  one  can  be  sorry  that  there  are  no 
children  in  thousands  of  homes  one  knows. 
It  is  better  that  children  should  not  have 


84  EUTHENICS 

been  born  than  to  come  into  an  inheritance 
of  suffering  and  mental  and  moral  dwarf- 
ing. Social  uplift  will  not  be  possible  while 
parents  take  the  view  of  cats,  or  even  of  a 
well-to-do  mother  who  said,  "I  did  not 
have  my  baby  to  discipline  her;  I  had  her 
to  play  with." 

No  state  can  thrive  while  its  citizens 
waste  their  resources  of  health,  bodily 
energy,  time,  and  brain  power,  any  more 
than  a  nation  may  prosper  which  wastes  its 
natural  resources. 

America  today  is  wasting  its  human 
possibilities  even  more  prodigally  than  its 
material  wealth.  The  latter  deficiency  is 
being  brought  to  a  halt.  Shall  the  human 
side  receive  less  attention?  A  sharply 
divided  line  between  home  and  school  is 
no  longer  clearly  drawn.  Parents'  associa- 
tions are  being  formed  ^nd  are  cooperating 
with  the  school-teacher.  To  what  end?  To 
the  better  moral  and  intellectual  atmosphere 
of  the  home.  Physical  education  has  had 
its  vogue,  but  too  much  as  an  endeavor 
apart,  not  as  a  necessary  element  in  the 
whole. 


EUTHENICS  85 

The  pedagogical  world  is  now  becom- 
ing convinced  that  physical  defects  are  more 
often  than  not  the  basis  of  mental  incompe- 
tence, and  this  leads  logically  to  the  teach- 
ing of  the  laws  of  right  living  in  a  practical 
way,  not  merely  as  lessons  from  books,  but 
as  daily  practice.  This  practice  must  even- 
tually go  into  the  home,  where  the  most  of 
the  child's  hours  are  spent.  It  is  as  use- 
less to  expect  good  health  from  unsanitary 
houses  as  good  English  from  two  hours' 
school  training  diluted  by  twelve  hours  of 
slovenly  language.  Hence  the  imperative 
need  of  such  teaching  and  example  as  can 
be  put  into  practice;  and  since  immediate 
house  to  house  renovation  and  change  of 
view  are  impossible,  the  school  must  pro- 
vide for  teaching  how  to  live  wisely  and 
sanely,  as  well  as  for  clear  thinking  and 
aesthetic  appreciation.  Practical  hygiene, 
food,  cleanliness,  sanitation,  all  must  even- 
tually be  exemplified  by  the  schoolhouse 
and  taught  as  a  part  of  a  general  education 
to  all  pupils,  boys  and  girls. 

If  this  sounds  like  socialism,  let  us  not 
be  afraid,  but  educate  for  five  or  ten  years 


86  EUTHENICS 

all  children,  so  that  homes  may  be  better 
managed,  and  then  it  is  to  be  hoped  there 
will  be  no  need  for  such  school  training. 
To  live  economically  in  the  broad  sense  of 
wise  use  of  time,  money,  and  bodily  strength 
is  the  great  need  of  the  twentieth  century. 
This  is  practical  economics.  This  is  some- 
thing which  cannot  today,  except  in  rare 
instances,  be  learned  at  home,  for  condi- 
tions change  so  rapidly  that  grown  people 
may  not  keep  up  with  them.  Mothers' 
ways  are  superseded  before  the  children 
are  grown. 

The  school,  if  it  is  maintained  as  a  pro- 
gressive institution  and  a  defense  against 
predatory  ideas,  is  the  people's  safeguard 
from  being  crushed  by  the  irresistible  car 
of  progress.  I  repeat,  standards  may  be  set 
by  the  school  which  will  reach  and  influence 
the  community  in  a  few  months.  Such 
standards  should  be  a  means  of  safeguard- 
ing the  people,  and  this  leads  to  the  most 
important  service  which  a  teacher  of  do- 
mestic economy  can  render  to  the  people 
in  giving  them  a  sense  of  control  over  their 
environment,  than  which  nothing  is  so 
conducive  to  stability  of  ideas. 


EUTHENICS  87 

To  feel  one's  self  in  command  of  a  situ- 
ation robs  it  of  its  terror.  A  great  danger 
in  America  today  is  the  loss  of  this  feeling 
of  self-confidence  with  which  the  pioneer 
was  abundantly  furnished.  A  certain  help- 
less dependence  is  creeping  over  the  land 
because  of  the  peculiar  development  of  re- 
sources, which  must  be  replaced  by  a  sense 
of  power  over  one's  environment. 

Home  Ideals 

There  is  no  noble  life  without  a  noble  aim. 

The  watchword  of  the  future  is  the  welfare  and 
security  of  the  child. 

Love  of  home  and  of  what  the  home  stands  for 
converts  the  drudgery  of  daily  routine  into  a  high  order 
of  social  service. 

The  economy  of  right  uses  depends  largely  upon 
the  home-maker,  and  brings  the  return  in  health,  happi- 
ness, and  efficiency.^ 

1  Motto,  Mary  Lowell  Stone  Home   Economics  Exhibit,  Jamestown 
Expoffltion,   1907. 


4^ 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  child  to  be  educated  in  the  light  of 
sanitary  science.  Office  of  the  school.  Do- 
mestic science  for  girls.  Applied  science. 
The  duty  of  the  higher  education.  Research 
needed. 


No  Chrisdan  and  civilized  community  can  afford  to  show  a  happy-go- 
lucky  lack  of  concern  for  the  youth  of  today ;  for,  if  so,  the  community 
will  have  to  pay  a  terrible  penalty  of  financial  burden  and  social  degradation 
in  the  tomorrow. 

President  Roosevelt,  Message  to  Congress,  December,  igo/f. 


The  loss  of  faith  brings  us  by  a  short  cut  straight  to  the  loss  of  purpose 
in  life  —  of  any  purpose,  at  least,  beyond  purely  material  ones.  To  those 
who  need  money  the  duty  of  getting  it  first  and  above  anything  else 
becomes  the  gospel  of  life.  To  those  who  feel  the  need  of  position, 
whether  in  society,  business,  or  elsewhere,  their  gospel  drives  them  to  all 
means  within  the  law  to  attain  that.  To  those  who  have  both  money 
and  position  comes  the  only  remaining  purpose  in  life  —  that  of  using 
them  for  an  existence  of  amusement  and  enjoyment.  Is  it  too  much  to 
say  that  never  before  in  our  history  have  such  aspirations  so  completely 
dominated  and  limited  such  large  classes  ? 

What  is  the  poor  American  to  do  in  his  present  fever  and  with  his 
present  nerves,  but  with  fivefold  greater  powers  placed  in  his  hands  and 
fivefold  greater  attention  and  capacity  demanded  for  their  control  ?  If 
sixty  years  ago  the  free  forces  and  rushing  advance  of  the  republic  urgently 
needed  the  regulation  of  a  powerful  and  learned  conservative  body,  who 
can  overestimate  the  necessity  for  such  service  now  ? 

When  you  ask  how  it  is  to  be  rendered,  one  cannot  be  mistaken  in 
turning  first  to  those  priceless  qualities  in  any  sound  national  life  whose 
tendency  to  decay  we  noted  at  the  outset.  Give  back  to  us  our  faitk. 
Give  back  to  us  a  serious  and  worthy  purpose.  Restore  sane  views  of 
life,  of  our  own  relations  to  it,  and  of  our  relations  to  those  who  share 
it  with  us.  Whitelaiu  Reid,  Fhi  Beta  Kappa  address,  igoj. 


90 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  HOME  AND  THE  SCHOOL 

ONE  must  not  displace  the  other,  for 
one  cannot  replace  the  other,  but 
rather  the  home  and  the  school  must  react 
on  each  other.  The  home  is  the  place  in 
which  to  gain  the  experience,  and  the 
school  the  place  in  which  to  acquire  the 
knowledge  that  shall  illuminate  and  crys- 
tallize the  experience.  The  child  should 
go  out  to  the  school  with  enthusiasm,  and 
return  to  the  home  filled  with  a  deeper  in- 
terest and  desire  to  realize  things. 

In  morals  and  manners  the  school  can 
only  give  tendency  or  direction  to  the  child's 
life.  The  school  is  not  the  best  place  to 
teach  ethics.  In  the  family  life  the  child 
himself  finds  his  future  revealed,  reflected 
by  his  relations  to  other  members  of  the 
family.  The  spirit  of  cooperation  nurtured 
there  will  develop  in  the  school  through 
the  more  various  opportunities  of  relation- 
ship to  others. 

91 


92  EUTHENICS 

The  earlier  conditions  cannot  be  re- 
stored, even  the  home  training  cannot  be 
brought  back,  except  on  the  farm,  and  there, 
it  is  hoped,  it  may  be  revived.  The  city  or 
suburban  children  cannot  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  pick  up  chips  when  too  young  to 
bring  in  wood;  cannot  stand  by  and  hold 
skeins  of  yarn,  or  go  to  the  barn  and  help 
feed  the  calves — all  most  interesting  and 
provocative  of  endless  questions.  They  can- 
not go  into  the  garden  and  pick  berries  or 
vegetables  for  dinner,  cannot  learn  how  to 
avoid  breaking  the  vines,  or  how  to  judge 
the  ripeness  of  the  melons. 

All  that  is  probably  not  feasible  for 
many,  because  it  is  not  possible  to  give 
children  of  this  age  responsibility  without 
oversight,  and  today's  elders  are  loath  to 
give  and  are  often  incapable  of  giving 
oversight. 

But  while  these  circumstances  over 
which,  apparently,  we  have  no  control, 
preclude  much  of  the  valuable  outdoor 
work,  food  has  still  to  be  prepared,  dishes 
need  washing,  and  clothes  must  be  mended, 
even  if  towels  and  napkins  are  no  longer 


EUTHENICS  93 

hemmed  by  hand.  Rooms  are  still  swept 
and  dusted,  beds  are  made,  and  chairs  and 
tables  put  straight.  Has  any  better  means 
of  giving  experience  ever  been  devised  than 
these  small,  daily  tasks  which  differentiate 
men  from  animals?  The  care  of  the  fixed 
habitation,  the  foresight  needed  to  prepare 
the  things  for  the  family  life  in  the  weeks 
and  months  to  come,  the  cooperation  of 
all  the  members  of  the  family  toward  one 
common  end — all  tend  toward  high  human  ^ 

ideals.  If  the  wise  mother  only  realized 
the  value  to  the  child  of  helping  in  such 
portions  as  are  not  too  heavy,  of  being  a 
part  of  the  life,  she  would  let  nothing  stand 
in  the  way  of  using  this  natural  means  of 
development.  But  with  foreign  domestics 
whose  idea  is  to  get  the  various  duties  over 
as  soon  as  possible,  and  whose  gift  is  not 
that  of  teaching,  how  is  the  child  to  grow 
into  the  normal  ways  of  right  daily  living, 
unconsciously  and  effectively? 

If  the  parents  continue  to  throw  all  the 
work  of  education  on  the  school,  then  the 
school  must  take  the  best  means  of  fulfilling 
the  task. 


94  EUTHENICS 

Not  only  has  the  home  put  the  burden 
of  education  on  the  school,  but  the  school 
has  drawn  the  child  away  from  the  home. 
The  school  of  today  demands  much  more 
from  him  than  the  school  of  the  early  New 
England  days.  It  has  taken  the  time  that 
was  formerly  given  to  assisting  in  the  duties 
of  the  household;  it  has  taken  from  the 
home  the  interest  and  responsibility  that 
were  developed  through  the  cooperation  in 
the  family  life.  School  has  taken  the  place 
of  home  in  the  child's  thoughts.  In  the 
morning  the  thought  is  of  reaching  school 
in  time,  not  of  the  home  duties  whose  per- 
formance could  lighten  many  a  mother's 
burden. 

The  school,  hurried  with  a  curriculum 
that  is  wasteful  of  time  and  energy,  lacking 
correlation  in  the  studies  (except  in  a  few 
schools  that  are  noted  exceptions  proving 
the  rule) ,  has  little  time  to  relate  its  work  to 
the  home  as  the  kindergarten  does  in  its 
morning  talk;  so  there  must  come  an  inter- 
mediate step  in  order  that  the  school  may 
emphasize  the  home  life  and  industries,  and 
that  a  generation  may  grow  up  who  shall 


EUTHENICS  95 

have  a  knowledge  of  the  daily  needs  of    < 
life. 

The  interest  awakened  in  the  school  will 
surely  react  upon  the  home.  It  is  like  an 
expedition  going  out  to  make  discoveries 
and  to  bring  back  knowledge  to  its  own  land. 
The  directive  work  of  the  school  will  thus 
become  a  practical  realization  in  the  home. 
Then  the  cycle  will  be  complete,  for  while 
the  school  has  separated  the  child  from 
his  natural  environment  for  many  hours 
and  weeks,  it  is  sending  him  back  better 
equipped  through  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence to  fulfill  his  place  there. 

How  shall  the  ends  be  gained  artificially 
by  devices  of  the  school?  For  gained  they 
must  be,  if  civilization  is  to  be  maintained. 

To  quote  from  Isabel  Bevier:  v 

"As  the  home  is  so  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  house,  and  our  comfort  and 
efficiency  are  so  greatly  influenced  by  the 
kind  of  houses  in  which  we  live,  much  of 
interest  and  importance  centers  in  the  study 
of  the  house." 

Moreover,  with  the  house,  its  evolution, 
decoration, and  care, maybe  associated  much 


96  EUTHENICS 

that  is  interesting  in  history,  art,  and  archi- 
tecture, as  well  as  much  that  has  a  direct 
bearing  on  the  daily  life  of  the  individual. 

The  philosophers  have  struggled  for 
centuries,  each  contributing  according  to 
his  experience  and  vision  to  determine  what 
is  the  purpose  of  life.  America's  thought 
could  be  translated  into  the  word  efficiency. 
Yes,  we  might  almost  say  she  worships  effi- 
ciency. If,  then,  efficiency  is  to  be  the  goal, 
what  are  the  means  to  develop  it?  Effi- 
ciency depends  chiefly  upon  good  health, 
and  to  maintain  this  we  must  first  consider 
in  the  scheme  of  education  thef  physical 
aids — food,  air,  water,  clothing  and  shelter, 
exercise  and  rest — and  with  this  goal  in 
view  must  come  also  recreation,  play  or 
amusement,  and  beauty  to  develop  the 
mental  and  the  spiritual.  In  relating  our 
scheme  of  work  to  this  ideal  we  will  con- 
sider first  the  shelter. 

The  children  of  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
age  have  passed  the  "make-believe"  stage 
of  play;  they  want  the  "real,"  but  of  their 
own  kind  and  age.  After  little  children 
have  made  and  played  with  toys  and  fore- 


EUTHENICS  97 

shadowed  the  needs  of  the  actual  home, 
the  time  has  come  for  the  youth  to  have  his 
demands,  which  are  not  yet  the  demands  of 
man  and  manhood. 

At  the  Tuberculosis  Congress,  held  in 
Washington  in  1908,  a  sanatorium  in  Eng- 
land, which  won  a  prize,  presented  among 
many  good  features  a  system  of  graded  work 
with  graded  tools,  almost  childlike  imple- 
ments for  the  weak  and  unskilled,  gradually 
advancing  toward  the  normal  as  the  strength 
and  health  of  the  man  grew.  So  it  should 
be  with  the  material  we  should  give  to  the 
children. 

After  the  toy  age  a  house  about  two- 
thirds  the  ordinary  sized  house  may  be 
constructed.  A  room  reven  feet  square  is 
very  livable  for  a  child.  Three  rooms  is  a 
very  good  working  plant — the  kitchen  and 
the  bedroom,  the  dining  and  living  room 
combined.  Both  boys  and  girls  may  co- 
operate in  planning,  building,  and  furnish- 
ing this  home. 

The  plan  of  a  modern  house  may  be 
drawn,  basing  it  on  the  knowledge  of  house 
architecture  through  history,  of  the  modifi- 


98  EUTHENICS 

cation  necessary  to  site  through  geography, 
and  the  knowledge  that  science  has  brought 
of  drainage,  ventilation,  and  construction. 
The  house  could  be  built  by  the  manual 
training  class,  or  if  that  is  not  feasible  it 
may  be  built  by  one  of  the  firms  making 
portable  houses.  At  all  events,  it  can  be 
painted  by  the  children,  and  this  will  lead 
to  lessons  on  color,  the  use  of  paint  and  its 
composition. 

While  the  "shelter"  is  being  constructed 
the  child  must  be  considering  at  the  same 
time  the  principles  of  caring  for  the 
home,  for  this  would  naturally  influence 
the  thought  of  furnishing.  The  simply 
furnished  home  means  less  physical  exer- 
tion, but  not  less  beauty.  The  home  planned 
and  executed  on  scientific  principles  of 
hygiene  and  sanitation  means  a  healthful 
home,  a  much  cleaner  home. 

The  shelter  of  the  individual  has  been 
considered;  now  comes  the  immediate  pro- 
tection of  the  child — its  clothing.  It  would 
not  be  quite  practical  in  this  little  home  to 
enter  into  the  personal  activities  of  bathing 
and  dressing.    A  very  large  doll,  approxi- 


EUTHENICS  99 

mating  the  child,  may  be  used,  one  large 
enough  so  that  it  can  wear  boots,  stockings, 
etc.,  that  are  usually  bought  for  the  real 
child.  Here  can  be  taught  also  the  lesson 
in  wise  spending. 

The  right  care  of  the  body  must  be  in- 
cluded among  the  necessities  of  education. 
The  teaching  of  the  principles  of  hygiene 
should  be  closely  related  to  the  lives  of  the 
children.  Correct  habits,  not  rules,  are 
the  proper  prevention  for  all  sorts  of  de- 
fects. To  secure  and  maintain  a  healthy 
body,  habits  of  cleanliness  and  enthusiasm 
for  health  must  be  inculcated.  Such  habits 
can  be  readily  impressed  on  the  body  while 
it  is  plastic — that  is,  while  it  is  young; 
but  they  are  acquired  only  with  difficulty 
and  by  much  thought  in  after  years.  Hence 
there  is  the  greatest  economy  of  time  and 
energy  in  accustoming  young  people  to 
habits  of  daily  living  which  will  give  them 
the  best  chance  in  after  life — the  chance 
to  be  "healthy,  happy,  efficient  human 
beings."  Most  of  the  teaching  must  be  by 
indirect  methods — illustrations — and  so 
the  doll  may  be  used  again  to  demonstrate 
and  relate  facts  about  the  daily  life. 


lOO  EUTHENICS 

An  old  Scotch  writer  once  said,  "He  that 
would  be  good  must  be  happy,  and  he  that 
would  be  happy  must  be  healthy."  As  has 
already  been  said,  the  great  increase  of  dis- 
ease from  causes  under  individual  control, 
such  as  that  which  is  brought  on  by  errors 
of  diet,  points  to  a  need  for  a  more  general 
education  in  this  respect.  The  food  prob- 
lem is  fundamental  to  the  welfare  of  the 
race.  Society,  to  protect  itself,  must  take 
cognizance  of  the  questions  of  food  and 
nutrition.  It  is  necessary  to  give  the  child 
the  right  ideas  on  these  subjects,  for  only 
then  will  there  be  sufficient  effort  to  get  the 
right  kind  of  food  and  to  have  it  clean. 
Right  living  goes  further  and  demands  the 
right  manner  of  serving  and  eating  the  food. 
The  home  table  should  be  the  school  of 
good  manners  and  of  good  food  habits  of 
which  the  child  ought  not  to  be  deprived. 

If  all  the  foregoing  principles  have  been 
developed,  if  the  child  has  been  led  to  see 
the  joy  of  living  through  these  home  activi- 
ties, he  will  consider  the  home  the  true 
shelter,  the  place  where  he  can  have  the 
happiest  play,  the  easiest  rest,  where  he  can 


EUTHENICS  lOI 

Study  most  earnestly,  and  express  himself 
most  honestly. 

And  the  parents,  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  children  of  the  city?  How  far  are  we 
helping  the  city  dwellers  to  take  advantage 
of  city  life?  The  principles  back  of  house- 
keeping are  the  same,  the  end  the  same — 
what  are  to  be  the  means  to  stimulate  the 
modern  home-maker?  Show  the  possibili- 
ties within  reach  of  them;  send  the  children 
home  with  ideas  which  the  mother  must 
consider. 

Education  in  pursuing  the  so-called 
"humanities"  has  been  holding  up  to  view 
a  hypothetical  man  in  a  hypothetical  en- 
vironment. 

The  pursuit  of  gold  has  not  been  hin- 
dered thereby,  and  has  gone  on  without  the 
restraints  of  education  because  of  the  com- 
plete detachment  of  ideals  inculcated  from 
the  actual  daily  life  where  money  meant 
personal  pleasure  and  comfort  for  the  time 
being. 

The  power  over  things  gained  by  a  few 
students  was  utilized  by  money  power  to 
hasten  all  progress.     Speed  was  the  watch- 


I02  EUTHENICS 

word.  No  one  could  stop  to  see  what  injury 
he  had  caused.  "Get  there,"  really  seemed 
to  be  the  motto.  In  this  scramble  for  power 
the  "purpose"  for  which  life  is  lived  has 
been  lost  sight  of.  No  "worthy  aim"  has 
been  impressed  on  the  mind  of  the  child. 

An  awakening  has  come  and  the  school 
is  the  leading  factor  in  the  upward  move- 
ment. Education  is  coming  to  have  a  new 
meaning,  or  better,  perhaps,  is  going  back  to 
the  older  meaning  with  new  materials.  No 
knowledge  or  power  the  youth  may  acquire 
will  avail  in  real  struggle  for  existence  of 
the  race  without  a  definite  aim  to  hold 
steady  the  eye  fixed  on  a  certain  goal.  This 
is  a  law  of  man's  existence. 

The  change  in  point  of  view  has  been 
growing  like  a  root  underground.  It  seems 
to  have  suddenly  sent  up  shoots  in  every 
direction.  In  no  line  of  thought  has  this 
change  come  more  generally  than  in  rela- 
tion to  the  things  youth  should  be  taught. 
Himself  and  his  relation  to  his  environ- 
ment are  now  to  the  front.  Instead  of  ex- 
tolling man  as  the  lord  of  all  created  things, 
the  youth  is  made  to  see  that  man  unaided 


EUTHENICS  103 

by  scientific  knowledge  is  at  the  mercy  of 
Nature's  forces;  that  man  in  crowds  is  sure 
to  succumb  unless  he  makes  a  strong  effort 
to  keep  himself  erect. 

Hence  the  boys  are  given  manual  train- 
ing— power  over  wood  and  stone,  steam 
and  electricity;  and  are  taught  the  prin- 
ciples of  production  of  food  and  metals. 
The  girls  are  being  taught  to  distinguish 
values  in  textiles  and  food  stuffs ;  to  manage 
finances  and  to  keep  houses  in  a  sanitary 
manner. 

It  is  the  business  of  the  higher  educa- 
tion at  once  to  apply  the  knowledge  of 
preventive  measures  to  its  own  students  and 
through  them  to  reach  the  people,  but  it  has 
been  very  slow  to  take  up  the  cause  of  better 
environment. 

In  colleges  there  is  still  more  emphasis 
laid  on  external  works,  such  as  water  sup- 
ply, drainage,  etc.,  than  on  the  more  inti- 
mate hourly  needs  of  fresh  air  and  clean 
rooms.  The  halls,  study  rooms,  and  dining 
rooms  of  colleges  are  notoriously  ill  venti- 
lated and  not  over  clean. 

The  senses  are  blunted  at  an  age  when 


I04  EUTHENICS 

they  should  be  keenly  sensitive.  It  is  only 
within  ten  years  or  so  that  very  many  of 
the  higher  schools  have  made  a  point  of 
indoor  sanitation  beyond  plumbing  pro- 
visions. Outdoor  sports  have  been  relied 
upon  to  give  sufficient  impetus  to  the  health 
side  of  education. 

A  new  element  has  come  into  the  State 
universities  through  the  Home  Economics 
courses,  which  have  been  steadily  grow- 
ing in  favor  during  the  last  two  decades. 
Within  that  time  several  buildings  have 
been  erected  and  equipped  to  teach  the  prin- 
ciples of  sanitary  and  economic  living  both 
in  institution,  school,  and  family  life. 

Probably  no  one  movement  has  been  so 
powerful  as  this  in  convincing  educators 
of  the  efficiency  of  trained  women  as  factors 
in  sanitary  progress.  In  no  other  direc- 
tion is  the  outlook  for  social  service  greater. 
The  woman  must,  however,  be  more  than  a 
willing  worker;  she  must  be  educated  in 
science  as  a  foundation  for  sanitary  work. 

Within  the  next  few  years  the  demand 
for  trained  women  is  sure  far  to  exceed  the 
supply,  for  the  fundamental  sciences  are 
not  to  be  acquired  in  one  or  two  years. 


EUTHENICS  105 

Young  college  women  are  even  now 
realizing  their  mistake  in  neglecting  the 
sciences.  They  assumed  that  science  was 
not  of  practical  use.  They  assumed  that 
educational  curricula  were  stable  and  would 
go  on  in  the  same  lines  forever. 

The  high  school  is  now  fully  awake  to 
these  vital  factors.  Some  of  the  best  build- 
ings in  the  United  States  are  the  high  school 
buildings,  those  of  the  West  excelling  those 
of  the  East.  .By  191 1  nearly  every  school 
will  have  a  course  in  Sanitary  Science.  It 
may  be  under  the  name  of  Home  Eco- 
nomics, or  of  Camp  Cookery,  or  of  House 
Building,  but  the  idea  of  better  physical 
environment  has  already  taken  root.  In 
the  extension  of  school  work  by  the  em- 
ployment of  the  school  visitor  to  supple- 
ment the  work  of  the  teacher  in  the  grade 
schools,  in  Parents' Associations,  in  Mothers' 
Clubs,  in  social  endeavors  on  every  side, 
there  is  coming  the  study  of  more  special 
branches  of  sanitary  science,  clean  air,  clean 
floors,  clean  clothes — where  once  cooking 
lessons  were  the  extent  to  which  the  workers 
could  lead. 


Io6  EUTHENICS 

Evolution  has  at  last  been  accepted  as 
applying  to  man  as  well  as  to  animals.  In 
his  inaugural  address,  November,  1909, 
President  H.  J.  Waters,  of  Kansas  Agri- 
cultural College,  said:  "...  for  every  dollar 
that  goes  into  the  fitting  of  a  show  herd 
of  cattle  or  hogs,  or  into  experiments  in 
feeding  domestic  animals,  there  should  be 
a  like  sum  available  for  fundamental  re- 
search in  feeding  men  for  the  greatest 
efficiency. . . .  We  have  millions  for  research 
in  the  realm  of  domestic  animals  and  noth- 
ing for  the  application  of  science  to  the 
rearing  of  children." 

Evidence  is  not  wanting  that  all  this  is 
to  be  speedily  changed.  Man  has  awakened 
to  the  fact  that  he  is  "  the  sickest  beast  alive  " 
and  that  he  has  himself  to  blame,  and,  more- 
over, that  it  is  within  his  power  to  change 
his  condition  and  that  speedily. 

After  all,  human  life  and  effort  are  gov- 
erned largely  by  the  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious value  put  upon  the  varied  elements 
that  go  to  make  up  the  daily  round. 

It  seems  to  be  a  universal  law  that 
effort  must  precede  satisfaction,  from  the 


EUTHENICS  107 

infant  feeding  to  the  man  building  up  a 
successful  business.  The  satisfaction  grows 
in  a  measure  as  the  effort  was  a  prolonged 
or  sustained  one. 

Well-being  is  a  product  of  effort  and 
resulting  satisfaction.  The  child  without 
interest  in  work  or  play  does  not  develop ; 
the  man  with  no  stimulus  walks  through 
life  as  in  a  dream. 

The  first  steps  in  ^^ civilizing"  (?)  a 
nation  or  tribe  are  to  suggest  wants — things 
to  strive  for.  Struggle,  with  all  its  attend- 
ant evils,  seems  the  lever  that  moves  the 
world.  It  is  therefore  in  line  that  health, 
and  whatever  favors  it,  is  to  be  gained  at 
the  expense  of  struggle.  The  one  necessary- 
element  is  that  men  should  value  it  enough 
to  struggle  for  it. 

Sanitary  science  above  all  others,  when 
applied,  benefits  the  whole  people,  raises 
the  level  of  productive  life. 

In  the  rapid  development  of  our  civili- 
zation, the  laboratory,  the  shop,  the  school 
can  be  the  quickest  mediums  of  suggesting 
wants. 

In  an  earlier  chapter,  the  indifference  to 


Io8  EUTHENICS 

clean  conditions,  the  ignorance  of  the  means 
of  obtaining  pure  food  and  clean  air,  were 
dwelt  upon,  and  still  later  the  need  of  will 
to  choose  the  right  thing. 

Now  we  should  consider  the  means  of 
stimulating  that  choice.  So  far  it  has  been 
chiefly  exploitation  for  the  personal  gain 
of  the  manufacturer,  who  has  persuaded  the 
people  to  buy  his  product  regardless  of  its 
economic  or  hygienic  effect.  Thrift  has 
been  undermined  most  subtly. 

^'That's  the  secret  of  the  whole  situation 
we're  talking  about;  it's  easier  to  buy  a  new 
shirt  than  to  take  care  of  the  one  you've 
got."^ 

All  sense  of  values  has  been  lost,  so  that 
with  no  sound  basis  choice  is  apt  to  be 
unwise,  unsatisfactory,  and  is  gradually 
dropped,  while  the  individual  drifts. 

No  more  effective  agent  for  the  dissem- 
ination of  knowledge  was  ever  devised  than 
the  American  Public  School.  If  only  it 
would  live  up  to  its  opportunities,  its  teach- 
ers could  bring  to  its  millions  of  receptive 
minds    the    best    practice    in    daily    living 

1  Meredith  Nicholson,  Lords  of  High  Decision,  p.  133. 


EUTHENICS  109 

(never  mind  the  theory  for  the  children), 
and  through  the  children  reach  the  home, 
where  the  infants  may  be  saved  from  the 
risks  that  the  elders  have  run. 

To  be  effective,  however,  school  condi- 
tions should  be  satisfactory,  and  teachers 
should  be  familiar  with  the  best  ways  of 
living,  or  at  least  in  active  sympathy  with 
the  medical  inspector  and  the  school  nurse. 

No  more  revolting  revelations  have  ever 
been  made  than  those  usually  locked  in  the 
hearts  of  these  faithful  servants  of  the  peo- 
ple. How  they  can  have  courage  to  go  on 
in  face  of  parental  and  community  indiffer- 
ence is  a  marvel.  We  shall  consider  in  the 
next  chapter  how  the  average  parent  is  to 
be  aroused. 

But  the  leaders  in  educational  and  sci- 
entific thought — what  of  them  ?  The  school 
is  the  pride  of  the  community  and  meas- 
ures the  progress  of  the  community  toward 
ideals.  Alas,  how  is  pride  laid  low  in  most 
public  school  buildings  in  the  inability  of 
most  of  the  teachers  to  see  the  relations 
between  mental  stupidity  and  bad  air. 

The    awakening   has    begun,    however, 


no  EUTHENICS 

and  thousands  of  teachers  have  responded 
and  are  urging  authorities  to  burn  more 
coal,  to  employ  more  help,  to  keep  the  house 
clean,  to  make  it  more  beautiful,  to  make 
the  curriculum  more  helpful,  to  make  pro- 
vision for  good  food  to  be  purchased,  and 
the  hundred  ways  in  which  the  school  may 
be  the  most  powerful  civilizing  factor  the 
nation  has.  But  civilization  must  not  spell 
disease  and  ruin. 

The  economic  factor  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of.  To  tell  the  boy  and  girl  that  they 
are  as  good  as  any  does  not  give  them  the 
right  to  the  most  expensive  food  and  cloth- 
ing they  see.  How  shall  they  choose  wisely 
in  the  multitude  of  new  things?  They 
wish  the  best,  naturally,  and  all  America 
is  honeycombed  with  the  wrong  idea  that 
the  best  costs  the  most.  An  Alaska  Indian 
came  into  the  store  in  Juneau  one  day  to 
buy  some  common  peas.  The  storekeeper 
said,  "I  am  out  of  the  brand  you  want." 
"No  peas?"  asked  the  Indian.  "No,  only 
some  small  cans  of  French  peas  at  forty 
cents  a  can.  You  don't  want  those."  "Why 
not?    Me  want  the  best." 


EUTHENICS  1 1 1 

The  schools  of  domestic  economy,  the 
classes  in  all  grade  schools,  will  have  to 
attack  and  conquer  these  prejudices  as  to 
values,  or,  rather,  will  need  to  substitute 
right  estimates  of  value  before  our  people 
will  choose  wisely  in  distributing  their  in- 
come, for  that  is  what  right  living  means. 
The  division  of  the  income  according  to 
the  necessities  of  health  and  efficiency,  not 
according  to  whim  or  selfish  desire,  is  some- 
times estimated  as 

20  to  25  per  cent  for  rent 
25  to  30  per  cent  for  food 
10  to  15  per  cent  for  clothing 

This  leaves  only  forty-five  or  thirty  per 
cent  for  other  things,  and  the  pennies  must 
be  carefully  counted  to  cover  fuel,  light, 
amusements,  education,  books,  insurance, 
or  investments.  Something  that  the  family 
would  like  must  be  left  out — no  matter 
what,  providing  only  it  does  not  injure  their 
efficiency  as  wage-earners,  as  comfortable 
human  beings. 

The  sensation  of  comfort  or  satisfaction 
is  so  completely  a  psychic  factor  that  the 
school  training  has  a  great  chance  to  affect 


112  EUTHENICS 

after  life.  The  child  can  acquire  the  habit 
of  being  more  comfortable  in  plain,  wash- 
able, clean  clothes,  with  clean  hands,  than 
in  dirty,  ragged  furbelows.  This  habit  once 
thoroughly  acquired  is  not  likely  to  be 
quickly  lost.  Provision  for  clean  hands  is 
a  necessity  in  school,  and  ways  of  making  a 
small  amount  of  soap  and  water  serve  may 
also  be  taught.  All  the  while,  care  is  to  be 
taken  not  to  introduce  unnecessarily  expen- 
sive materials  or  to  inculcate  over-refined 
notions. 

Sound  instruction  as  to  dangers  of  trans- 
ference of  saliva,  of  nose  discharge,  etc.,  can 
be  given  without  also  giving  the  despair  of 
impossible  achievement. 

The  teaching  in  the  classes  must  have 
this  practical  bearing  on  daily  life.  It  is 
insisted  on  here  because  unclean  hands  are 
the  chief  source  of  infectious  disease. 

Instead  of  blaming  water  supplies,  dusty 
streets,  or  even  contagion  by  the  breath, 
sanitarians  are  everywhere  putting  empha- 
sis upon  the  actual  contact  of  moist  mucus 
with  milk  and  other  food,  in  preparation  or 
in  serving.     It  is  not  a  supercilious  notion 


EUTHENICS  113 

to  examine  tumblers  for  finger  marks,  or  to 
object  to  the  habit  of  wetting  the  finger  with 
saliva  in  turning  leaves  of  books.  These 
little  unclean  acts  are  the  unconscious  habits 
that  cling  to  a  person  in  spite  of  education 
from  reading.  The  greatest  service  to  be 
done  today  in  improving  the  health  of  the 
community  is  in  the  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples which  may  be  summed  up  in  the 
phrases — fresh  air  all  the  twenty- four  hours, 
clean  hands  the  livelong  day,  the  free  use 
of  the  handkerchief  to  protect  from  contam- 
ination of  mouth  and  nose. 

All  these  small  personal  habits  should 
be  taught  in  the  earliest  months  of  life,  /.  e., 
in  the  home;  but  if  the  child  reaches  school 
untaught,  then  in  defense  of  the  whole  com- 
munity the  school  must  insist  upon  teaching 
them. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Stimulative  education  for  adults.  Books, 
newspapers,  lectures,  working  models,  mu- 
seums, exhibits,  moving  pictures. 


The  efficient  sanitarian  is  not  so  great  when  he  conquers  a  raging 
epidemic  as  when  he  prevents  an  epidemic  that  might  have  raged  but  for 
his  preventive  care,  and  for  this  result  his  most  continuous  and  effectual 
work  is  to  educate  —  educate  —  educate. 

Wm.  H.  Breiverj  New  Haven  Health  Association^  igo^. 

"  The  essential  fact  in  man's  history  to  my  sense  is  the  slow  unfolding 
of  a  sense  of  community  with  his  kind,  of  the  possibilities  of  cooperation 
leading  to  scarce-dreamt-of  collective  powers,  of  a  synthesis  of  the  species, 
of  the  development  of  a  common  general  idea,  a  common  general  purpose 
out  of  a  present  confusion.  H.  G.  Wells,  First  and  Last  Things. 


The  great  mass  of  the  population  is,  indeed,  at  the  present  time  like 
clay  which  has  hitherto  been  a  mere  deadening  influence  underneath,  but 
which  this  educational  process,  like  some  drying  and  heating  influence 
upon  that  clay,  is  rendering  resonant. 

H.  G.  Wells,  New  Worlds  for  Old. 


ii6 


CHAPTER  VII 

In  a  store  an  advertisement  reads  :   "  Any  kind  of  tea  you  prefer  j  no 
charge  whatever." 

She:    '*The  women  look  so  tired  when  they  come  in,  and  in  ten 
minutes  they  are  so  rested  and  refreshed." 
He  :   **  Ready  to  go  home  ?  '* 
She  :   "  Why,  no — ready  to  do  some  more  shopping." 

Spectator  J  The  Outlooky  December  iS,  igog. 

SOMETHING  in  motion  and  some- 
thing to  eat  attract  the  crowd. 

The  social  worker  is  just  beginning  to 
realize  what  the  manufacturer  and  the 
department  storekeeper  have  long  since 
found  out. 

Why  is  it  not  legitimate  to  "attract  a 
crowd,"  to  do  them  a  good  service  in  show- 
ing them  how  to  save  money  as  well  as  in 
impelling  them  to  spend  it?  It  is  wiser 
to  show  how  before  explaining  why. 

The  force  of  example,  the  power  of 
suggestion,  should  be  used  fully  before  co- 
ercion is  applied.  Exhibits  and  models 
come  before  law. 

The  psychology  of  influence  is  an  inter- 
117 


Il8  EUTHENICS 

esting  study  (see  Miinsterberg's  article, 
McClure'sj  November,  1909).  Its  princi- 
ples have  been  grasped  and  used  by  those 
who  exploit  human  feelings  for  their  own 
gain.  The  student  of  social  conditions 
should  make  a  wider  and  better  use  of  a 
real  force. 

Publicity  is  perhaps  first.  Exhibits 
showing  existing  conditions  often  shock 
people  into  attention,  for  it  is  inattention 
more  than  anything  else  that  prevents 
betterment. 

It  is  said  that  "a  knowledge  of  danger 
is  the  surest  means  of  guarding  against 
it,"  but  this  knowledge  must  be  translated 
into  belief  and  the  danger  be  brought 
home  to  the  individual  as  a  member  of  the 
community. 

Exhibits  may  otccn  suggest  for  existing 
evils  simple  remedies  never  thought  of  be- 
fore. They  should  never  suggest  the  one 
idea  without  the  other.  Even  though  the 
remedy  is  not  worked  out,  it  should  be 
called  for.  America's  inventive  power 
may  well  be  turned  on  its  own  social  affairs 
as  well  as  on  adaptation  of  European 
machinery. 


EUTHENICS  119 

The  man  considered  in  these  pages  is 
the  man  in  community  environment,  and 
the  discussion  is  as  to  what  controls  this 
community  life.  It  will  be  acknowledged 
by  all  thoughtful  persons  that  the  prime 
control  lies  in  the  purpose  for  which  the 
community  exists.  If  for  selfish  gain,  then 
all  is  sacrificed  to  that  end.  Men  and 
women  become  mere  machines  and  children 
are  only  in  the  way  until  they,  too,  may  be 
put  into  the  service. 

If  it  exists  for  mutual  help  and  general 
advance  in  civilization,  then  the  leaders  in 
the  community  take  into  account  the  ele- 
ments that  contribute  to  the  future  as  well 
as  those  for  the  immediate  present. 

In  the  confusion  of  ideas  resulting  from 
the  rapid,  almost  cancerous  growth  of  the 
modern  community,  made  possible  by  me- 
chanical invention,  the  people  have  lost  the 
power  of  visualizing  their  conception  of 
right  and  wrong,  a  power  which  made  the 
Puritan  such  a  force  in  early  colonial  times. 
Heaven  and  hell  were  very  real  to  him  and 
were  powerful  factors  in  influencing  his 
daily  life.    The  average  man  today  has  no 


I20  EUTHENICS 

such  spur  to  good  behavior.  Perhaps  the 
sword  of  Damocles  must  be  visualized  by 
such  exhibits  as  the  going  out  of  an  electric 
light  every  time  a  man  dies,  by  the  ghastly 
microbe  in  the  moving  picture,  by  the 
highly  colored  print  or  by  a  vivid  repro- 
duction of  crowded  quarters.  The  social 
worker  has  been  doubtful  of  the  real  value 
of  such  exhibits,  but  such  reminders  have 
their  place  in  a  community  accustomed  to 
the  advertising  of  less  worthy  subjects. 

A  decided  recognition  of  the  value  of 
exhibits  is  found  in  the  advertisement  of  a 
company:  "We  design  and  equip  Exhibits 
on  Tuberculosis,  Milk,  Civic  Betterment, 
Dental  Hygiene,  Saner  Fourth  of  July. 
Have  you  our  catalogue?"  Much  of  our 
educational  work  for  the  dissemination  of 
useful  knowledge  would  gain  in  power 
and  directness  from  an  adaptation  of  the 
methods  of  the  man  skilled  in  promoting 
commercial  interests.  He  knows  how  to 
apply  the  right  stimulus  at  the  right  time 
in  order  to  arouse  the  desired  interest. 

In  many  ways  the  adult  is  but  the  child 
of  a  larger  growth,  who  needs  something 


EUTHENICS  .  121 

concrete  to  make  him  understand.  And  so 
have  grown  up  the  great  industrial  fairs 
and  exhibitions.  One  comes  away  from 
these  wondering  that  so  much,  both  good 
and  bad,  is  being  prepared  for  him,  and 
stimulated,  usually,  to  work  out  certain 
suggestions  and  better  many  of  the  present 
conditions.  Both  the  manufacturer  and  the 
consumer  have  been  helped. 

Wherever  it  is  possible,  a  working 
model  illustrating  the  chief  features  to  be 
explained  should  be  installed.  The  expense 
of  this  kind  of  exhibit  has  in  the  past  been 
prohibitive,  and  moreover  the  use  of  such 
"claptrap"  has  been  frowned  upon;  but 
scientific  knowledge  is  no  longer  to  be  held 
within  the  aristocratic  circle  of  the  univer- 
sity. It  is  to  be  brought  within  the  reach 
of  the  man  in  the  street,  and  to  make  up  for 
the  wasted  years  of  seclusion  experts  now 
vie  with  each  other  in  putting  cause  and 
effect  not  merely  into  words  but  into  pic- 
tures, and  even  into  motion  pictures.  The 
fly  as  a  carrier  of  disease  is  now  shown 
in  all  its  busy  and  disgusting  activity.  The 
lesson  of  awakened  attention  by  such  means 


122  EUTHENICS 

is  being  learned,  and  soon  lessons  in  botany, 
in  gardening,  in  housewifery,  will  be  given 
through  the  eye,  to  be  the  better  followed 
by  the  hand. 

Of  all  means,  that  product  of  man's  in- 
genuity, the  moving  picture,  is  destined 
to  play  the  greatest  part  in  quick  education. 
It  is  the  quintessence  of  democracy. 

The  extension  movement  in  education  is 
an  evidence  of  a  new  social  ideal.  It  is  a 
true  expression  of  democracy  that  the  uni- 
versity and  school  can  be  utilized  by  the 
busy  working  people.  Museums  that  at  one 
time  were  only  for  the  educated  who  by 
previous  training  could  understand  them 
now  assume  as  a  privilege  the  educating 
of  all  the  people.  Schools  of  art  and 
science,  also,  through  lectures,  bulletins, 
guides,  and  special  exhibits,  extend  a  gen- 
erous welcome  to  the  public. 

The  citizens  ought  to  be  a  gladder,  sad- 
der people,  stirred  and  delighted  and  grate- 
ful for  much  that  the  city  affords ;  sad  and 
shocked  by  some  of  the  forbidding,  existing 
conditions.  That  is  the  power  of  an  exhibit, 
so  to  visualize  a  condition  that  the  mind 


EUTHENICS  123 

really  conceives  it,  never  again  to  recover 
from  the  shock,  to  be  unmindful  of  such 
possibilities  of  degraded  existence  for  hu- 
man beings. 

The  influence  of  these  great  expositions 
is  of  a  most  subtle  kind,  not  often  to  be 
traced,  but  there  is  a  noticeable  change  in 
the  estimation  in  which  Home  Economics 
is  held  dating  from  the  time  of  the  Mary- 
Lowell  Stone  Home  Economics  Exhibit 
held  at  the  Exposition  in  St.  Louis  in  1905. 
This  illustrated  the  application  of  modern 
knowledge  to  home  life,  chiefly  in  economic 
and  aesthetic  lines,  all  bearing  upon  the 
health  and  efficiency  of  the  people.  The 
Chicago  Exposition  in  1893  had  its  Rum- 
ford  Kitchen,  an  exhibit  under  the  auspices 
of  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  This  prac- 
tical illustration  of  scientific  principles 
modified  the  ideas  of  the  world  as  to  the 
place  and  importance  of  cookery  in  educa- 
tion. Indeed,  there  seemed  a  distinct  danger 
that  other  lines  would  be  neglected,  so  that 
when  the  Exposition  at  St.  Louis  was  deter- 
mined upon  this  legacy  of  fifteen  years  be- 
fore was  drawn  upon  to  show  the  wide  scope 
of  the  subject  as  it  had  been  developed. 


124  EUTHENICS 

Boards  of  Health  might  pave  the  way 
for  a  better  understanding  of  their  rules  and 
regulations  if  they  would  have  temporary 
exhibits  in  public  places  of  some  of  the  con- 
ditions known  to  them  but  unsuspected  by 
the  average  citizen  and  taxpayer. 

Traveling  exhibits  may  show  local  and 
temporary  conditions  and  may  call  attention 
to  needs  demanding  immediate  remedy — 
with  the  remedy  suggested. 

Permanent  exhibits  in  museums  should, 
on  the  other  hand,  teach  a  deeper  lesson. 
They  should  always  be  constructive  and 
should  be  replaced  when  the  conditions 
have  changed.  The  modern  idea  of  a  mu- 
seum is  a  series  of  adjustable  exhibits  with 
distinct  suggestive  purpose.  Such  are  found 
in  the  Town  Room,  3  Joy  Street,  Boston, 
the  Social  Museum,  Harvard  College,  the 
/  American  Museum  of  Safety,  and  the  Sani- 
tary Science  Section,  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  New  York. 

The  distribution  of  the  printed  word 
has  become  so  universal  that  it  would  seem 
as  if  every  family  might  be  influenced  by 
it;  but  the  scientific  title,  or  the  size  of  the 


EUTHENICS  125 

book,  or  the  scientific  terms  seem  forbid- 
ding, and  so  the  whole  question  is  thrust 
aside. 

In  the  past,  newspaper  science  was 
largely  discounted  as  sensational  and  only 
one-tenth  fact.  Scientific  workers  were 
largely  to  blame  for  this.  They  could  not 
take  the  time  to  explain  the  meaning  of  their 
work,  and  the  few  things  they  were  ready 
to  say  were  worked  over  out  of  all  semblance 
to  truth  by  the  writer  who  must  have  a 
"story"  and  who  had  not  the  training  in 
"suspension  of  judgment"  which  the  scien- 
tific investigator  knows  to  be  necessary. 

There  is  no  concern  of  human  life  that 
cannot  be  made  interesting,  and  the  maga- 
zine writers  of  today  understand  that  art. 
Read  the  newspaper  and  the  world  is  yours. 
It  is  all  things  to  all  men.  The  populariz-  v 
ing  of  knowledge  is  now  proceeding  on 
somewhat  better  lines.  Intermediaries  be- 
tween the  laboratory  and  the  people  are 
springing  up  to  interpret  the  one  to  the 
other.  This  work  is  good  or  bad  according 
to  the  individual  writer.  Most  of  it  is  still 
too  superficial.     Here  is  one  of  the  most 


126  EUTHENICS 

fertile  fields  for  the  educated  woman,  since 
the  evils  of  which  we  complain  have  to  do 
so  intimately  with  woman's  province,  the 
home  and  the  school.  There  is  hope  that 
the  trained,  scientific  woman  will  take  her 
place  as  interpreter.  Her  practical  sense 
will  give  her  an  advantage  over  the  young 
man  who  has  never  known  other  home  than 
a  boarding  house. 

But  the  expert  knows  that  the  man  of 
"practical  affairs''  wants  and  needs  certain 
knowledge,  and  so  seeks  another  way.  Our 
Federal  government,  through  the  depart- 

'    ments  of  Agriculture  and  Education;  the 

'  State  Boards  of  Health;  the  educational  in- 
stitutions, have  with  care  and  accuracy  for- 
mulated this  knowledge  and  are  sending  to 

"^  the  people,  in  the  form  of  bulletins  meeting 
their  interest  and  requirements,  knowledge 
in  concise  and  readable  form,  and  so  most 
valuable.    One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 

\y  of  Miss  Maria  Parloa's  bulletin  on  Preserv- 
ing have  been  distributed  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture. 

These  efforts  by  both  men  and  women 
have  meant  independent  scientific  research, 


EUTHENICS  127 

which  is  often  the  only  available  knowledge 
for  the  housekeeper.  It  is  bringing  to  them 
in  their  "business"  of  life  the  same  help 
that  the  men  on  the  farm  and  elsewhere  are 
receiving  in  theirs. 

But  the  written  word,  however  clearly 
put,  can  never  reach  the  untrained  as  can 
the  voice  and  personality  of  an  earnest 
speaker  with  a  compelling  vitality.  Lec- 
tures by  those  who  have  been  engaged  in 
research  themselves,  so  that  they  have 
absorbed  the  spirit  of  the  laboratory — not 
by  those  who  have  merely  smelled  the  odors 
of  the  waste  jars — are  ten  times  more  valu- 
able than  even  the  most  attractively  illus- 
trated articles.  It  is  well  that  the  person- 
ality of  the  human  being  is  an  asset,  and 
that  there  is  a  stimulus  in  hearing  and  see- 
ing the  person  who  has  accomplished  things. 
There  is  always  a  power  in  the  spoken  word. 
The  government,  with  its  public  lectures, 
recognizes  this  as  well  as  the  private  organ- 
ization, and  today  ignorance  is  necessarily 
due  only  to  indifference. 

Illustrated  lectures  followed  by  litera- 
ture are  of  inestimable  value  if  rightly  and 


128  EUTHENICS 

not  sensationally  given.  Even  then,  the 
seed  must  have  time  to  sprout. 

Man  has  reached  his  present  stage  of 
civilization,  however  we  regard  it,  by  an 
incessant  warfare  against  adverse  condi- 
tions. Enemies,  man  and  beast,  surrounded 
him;  mountains  and  rivers  obstructed  his 
passage ;  fire  and  flood  swept  away  his  dwell- 
ings; but  ever  onward  the  inward  impulse 
has  carried  him. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  same 
vocabulary  is  transferred  to  the  warfare 
for  social  betterment,  "campaign,"  "war- 
fare," "battle,"  "fight,"  "weapon,"  "corps," 
"army."  And  the  fight  to  be  won  can  only 
come  through  knowledge,  its  dissemination 
and  then  its  application. 

Publicity  today  means  cooperation  and 
democracy — all  to  help,  all  to  be  helped. 

All  the  foregoing  methods  should  be 
used  in  these  campaigns  for  health,  with 
the  dictum,  "Man,  know  thyself." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Both  child  and  adult  to  be  protected  from 
their  own  ignorance.  Educative  value  of 
law  and  of  fines  for  disobedience.  Compul- 
sory sanitation  by  municipal^  state^  and  fed- 
eral regulations.    Instructive  inspection. 


The  strength  of  the  State  is  the  sum  of  all  the  effective  people. 

Dr.  Ed'ward  Jarvii^  JMassachusetts  State  Board  of  Health ,  ^^74- 

When  the  Americans  took  charge  of  Bilibid  Prison  in  Manila  the 
death  rate  was  238  per  1,000  per  year :  by  improving  sanitary  conditions, 
this  death  rate  was  reduced  to  about  75  per  1,000  :  here  it  remained  sta- 
tionary until  it  was  discovered  that  a  very  high  percentage  of  the  prisoners 
were  infected  with  hookworms  and  other  intestinal  parasites  :  then  a  sys- 
tematic campaign  was  inaugurated  to  expel  these  worms,  and  when  this 
was  done  the  death  rate  fell  to   13.5  per  1,000.  C.  fF,  Sti/es. 

So  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  Health  Department  are  not  only 
changed,  but  they  are  very  greatly  increased  and  are  constantly  increasing. 
And  on  broad  lines  to  cause  the  citizen  to  do  the  things  he  can  and  ought 
to  do,  and  then  to  do  for  him  the  things  that  he  cannot  do,  but  which 
should  be  done,  is  the  duty  of  the  State,  and  that,  being  interpreted, 
means  the  real  prevention  of  disease. 

Eugene  H.  Porter,  Report,  Neiv  York  State  Department 
of  Health,  igog. 

The  whole  difference  of  modern  scientific  research  from  that  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  secret  of  its  immense  successes,  lies  in  its  collective 
character,  in  the  fact  that  every  fruitful  experiment  is  published,  every 
new  discovery  of  relationships  explained.  In  a  sense,  scientific  research 
is  a  triumph  over  natural  instinct,  over  that  mean  instinct  that  makes  men 
secretive.  H.  G.  Welk,  New  Worlds  for  Old. 

Public  or  governmental  hygiene  has  been  chiefly  concerned  with  pure 
air  and  pure  food,  and  with  organisms  producing  epidemic  diseases.  Boards 
of  health  are  a  recent  invention,  and  in  this  country  they  have  as  yet  been 
only  imperfectly  developed.  They  can  never  become  the  power  they 
should  be  until,  first,  public  opinion  better  realizes  their  usefulness  and  the 
fact  that  their  cost  to  the  taxpayer  is  saved  many  times  over  by  the  preven- 
tion of  death  and  disease  ;  second,  more  and  better  health  legislation  is 
enacted  —  national,  state,  and  municipal ;  and,  third,  special  training  is 
secured  for  what  is  really  a  new  profession,  that  of  a  public  health  officer. 

Report  on  National  Pltality. 

130 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LEGISLATIVE  COMPULSION 

GOVERNMENT  is  delegated  to  per- 
sons specially  set  apart  for  the  over- 
sight of  the  people's  welfare. 

Personal  conduct  was  free  from  such 
delegated  power  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
thought.  The  Englishman's  house  was  his 
castle  inviolate.  This  was  especially  true 
of  the  early  American  settlers.  Laws  inter- 
fering with  personal  liberty,  a  man's  right 
to  drink  tea,  to  punish  his  own  children,  to 
beat  his  own  wife,  to  keep  his  own  muck- 
heap,  have  been  deeply  resented  by  the 
American  citizen.  Each  step  in  the  protec- 
tion of  his  neighbor  has  been  taken  only  by 
a  struggle  extending  the  common  law  of 
nuisance  to  a  variety  of  conditions. 

The  protection  of  the  man  against  him- 
self, and  of  his  wife  and  child  against  his 
ignorance  or  greed,  is  one  of  the  twentieth 
century  tasks  yet  hardly  begun. 

The  control  of  man's  environment  for 
131 


132  EUTHENICS 

his  own  good  as  a  function  of  government 
is  a  comparatively  new  idea  in  republican 
democracy.  The  cry  of  paternalism  is 
quickly  raised,  on  the  one  hand,  of  social- 
ism, on  the  other.  Each  gain  has  been  at  the 
cost  of  a  hard-fought  battle.  But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  individual  must  delegate  more 
or  less  of  his  so-called  rights  for  the  sake  of 
the  race,  and  since  the  only  excuse  for  the 
existence  of  the  individual  is  the  race,  he 
must  so  far  relinquish  his  authority. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  urban  trend  that  the 
will  of  the  man,  of  the  head  of  the  family, 
should  be  superseded  by  that  of  the  commu- 
nity, city,  state,  nation. 

Even  though  all  the  agencies  for  the 
education  of  both  young  people  and  adults 
that  have  been  discussed  in  the  preceding 
chapters  were  set  in  motion  at  once,  there 
would  still  remain  many  thousands  in  town- 
ship and  city  untouched  by  these  forces,  or 
so  touched  as  to  arouse  rebellion  against 
such  novel  notions. 

Only  the  child  can  be  educated  to  ac- 
quire habits  of  right  living  so  perfectly  that 
the  suitable  action  takes  place  unconsciously. 


EUTHENICS  133 

Twenty  years  hence  these  trained  children 
will  be  the  chief  citizens  of  the  republic, 
the  leaders  of  public  opinion.  Today,  how- 
ever, less  gentle  means,  less  gradual  proc- 
esses, must  be  used  in  order  that  these  chil- 
dren may  have  a  chance  to  grow  up. 

In  the  social  republic,  the  child  as  a 
future  citizen  is  an  asset  of  the  state,  not  the 
property  of  its  parents.  Hence  its  welfare 
is  a  direct  concern  of  the  state.  Preventive 
medicine  is  in  this  sense  truly  State  Medi- 
cine, and  means  protection  of  the  people 
from  their  own  ignorance. 

In  the  laws  made  with  this  end  in  view 
lies  one  of  the  greatest  educative  agencies 
known.  We  have  referred  in  the  last  chapter 
to  the  need  of  drawing  attention  to  defects 
and  dangers  in  order  that  people  may  know 
what  the  results  of  their  careless  ways  may 
be.  No  surer  way  has  been  found  to  fix 
attention  than  to  attempt  to  enforce  a  law 
or  collect  a  fine  for  disobedience  of  it.  A 
marked  illustration  of  this  truth  is  given 
in  the  case  of  the  ordinance  against  spit- 
ting in  street  cars.  In  many  cities  a  notice 
was  posted  in  each  car — usually  with  little 


134  EUTHENICS 

effect.  In  some  a  fine  of  five  dollars  was 
added,  with  little  more  result.  Boston  was 
one  of  the  first  cities  to  pass  an  ordinance, 
and  it  accompanied  the  law  with  a  fine  of 
one  hundred  dollars.  This  compelled  at- 
tention— a  sum  which  represented  to  the 
workman  more  than  his  yearly  savings, 
more  than  any  single  expenditure.  To  the 
business  man,  even,  it  was  a  sum  not  to 
be  lightly  dropped  on  a  filthy  car  floor. 
This  mere  statement  of  the  value  of  clean- 
ness made  an  almost  instantaneous  change 
in  the  habits  of  thousands.  Within  two 
days  the  car  floors  became  practically  free 
without  a  single  fine  being  collected  within 
that  time,  as  far  as  the  author  is  aware. 

The  law  imposing  fines  for  neglect  of 
removal  of  garbage  or  of  screening  stables 
must  be  occasionally  enforced  in  order  to 
express  degree  of  disapproval.  A  petty 
fine  is  of  little  use. 

Conditions  of  motion,  of  rapid  inter- 
mingling of  distant  populations — a  thou- 
sand miles  in  a  day  is  now  possible — make 
national  control  a  necessity.  It  is  proved 
that  quick  results  may  be  gained  in  sav- 


EUTHENICS  135 

ing  lives  and  property  by  that  prompt 
and  thorough  action  which  well-equipped 
Federal  forces  alone  possess.  The  stamp- 
ing out  of  yellow  fever  in  Cuba,  the  re- 
demption of  Panama,  the  suppression  of 
sporadic  outbreaks  at  New  Orleans,  the  V 
quick  response  to  a  discovery,  as  in  the 
cases  of  pellagra  and  the  hookworm — all 
these  show  what  a  thoroughly  alive  govern- 
ment may  do. 

It  is  no  disgrace  to  an  individual  or  a 
city  to  have  the  national  laboratory  make 
discoveries,  to  have  the  national  power  put 
down  epidemics,  as  it  does  civil  rebellion, 
for  the  good  of  the  whole  nation.  It  is  dis- 
graceful, however,  for  the  citizen  to  remain 
indifferent  or  obstructive,  to  grumble  over 
the  cost.  The  indifference  of  the  people 
themselves  is  today  almost  the  only  stum- 
bling block  to  national  prosperity. 

The  time  lost  to  the  average  worker  by 
inefficient  labor  is  a  drain  on  the  community 
largely  avoidable,  and  is  the  cause  of  that 
other  drain  on  the  moral  as  well  as  physical 
vitality — charity. 

Preventive  medicine  is  a  science  by  it- 


136  EUTHENICS 

self,  a  combination  of  social  and  scientific 
forces  guided  by  research  quickly  applied, 
and  it  must  be  accepted  and  upheld  by 
those  whom  it  benefits,  namely,  all  the 
citizens.  The  nation  is  in  many  cases  the 
only  power  strong  enough  to  command 
confidence,  and  in  the  combination  of  gov- 
ernment effort  an  international  science  of 
human  welfare  is  bound  to  be  evolved. 

It  is  a  waste  of  effort  for  each  state  to 
prepare  a  fly  pamphlet.  The  correctness 
of  a  Government  Bulletin  would  give  an 
added  value  as  well  as  the  rapidity  of  cir- 
culation. The  bulletins  of  the  Agricultural 
Department  are  an  example. 

The  Weather  Service,  with  its  quick 
notifications,  shows  what  a  health  service 
might  do.  A  monthly  or  weekly  health 
chart  would  give  the  best  and  worst  spots. 

Precautions  really  workable  might  be 
furnished  the  Associated  Press. 

In  short,  system  and  science  might  be 
put  at  the  service  of  the  local  health  officer, 
of  the  traveler,  and  even  of  the  housewife. 

The  Library  of  Congress  now  furnishes 
cards  in  duplicate  to  a  large  number  of 


EUTHENICS  137 

centers,  thus  saving  time  to  the  investigator 
and  giving  information  often  not  otherwise 
obtainable. 

The  Farmers'  Bulletins  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  are  also  most  valuable 
to  the  people  who  are  in  search  of  help. 
Such  agencies  might  be  extended  without 
fear  of  trespass  on  any  existing  agencies. 

Just  as  the  individual,  if  he  is  to  do  and 
be  his  best,  accepts  his  limitations,  obeys 
Nature's  law,  and  thrives  in  body  and  estate 
in  consequence,  and  as  the  community  band- 
ing together  makes  and  carries  out  with 
penalties  for  deviation  certain  regulations 
for  mutual  benefit,  so  must  the  still  larger 
groups — the  state  and  the  nation — use  their 
larger  wisdom  and  wider  knowledge  for  the 
benefit  of  all.  The  individual  should  recog- 
nize the  value  to  himself  of  this  more  com- 
plete investigation,  and  instead  of  raising 
the  cry  of  paternalism  and  national  inter- 
ference, should  welcome  all  aids  to  increased 
efficiency. 

State  hygiene  is  necessary  to  supplement 
municipal  hygiene.  Often  the  rural  district 
has  no  other  hygiene,  and  the  city  and  the 


T38  EUTHENICS 

country  are  interdependent,  the  city  depend- 
ent upon  the  country  for  its  water,  milk,  and 
other  supplies. 

Almost  all  the  states  are  alive  to  the  im- 
portance of  milk  inspection.  As  early  as 
1869  in  Massachusetts,  Dr.  Bowditch  called 
the  Board  of  Health  ''The  State  Medicine," 
and  quotes  from  Dr.  Farr:  "How  out  of  the 
existing  seed  to  raise  races  of  men  to  divine 
perfection  is  the  final  problem  of  public 
medicine."  That  is  the  function  of  all 
boards  of  health.  If  factories  are  incor- 
porated under  state  laws,  they  must  also  be 
governed  by  the  state  regulations  for  health. 

Here  in  America  we  are  always  locking 
the  stable  door  after  the  horse  has  been 
stolen.  Not  until  many  "accidents"  had 
occurred  in  the  use  of  antitoxins  did  Con- 
gress pass  an  act  (1902)  regulating  the  man- 
ufacture and  interstate  sale  of  the  viruses, 
serums,  toxins,  etc.  The  supervision  and 
control  were  vested  in  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  through  the  Public  Health  and 
Marine  Hospital  Service.  Previous  to 
April  I,  1905,  there  was  no  official  standard 
for  measuring  the  strength  of  diphtheria 


EUTHENICS  139 

antitoxin.  Previous  to  October  25,  1907, 
there  were  as  many  units  or  standards  for 
tetanus  antitoxin  as  there  were  producers. 
One  was  labeled  "6,000,000  units  per  c.c." 
and  another  "0.75  unit  per  c.c,"  while,  ac- 
cording to  official  standard,  the  first  had 
only  90  and  the  latter  770. 

The  point  to  be  made  is  that  however 
faulty  an  official  or  Federal  standard  for 
sanitary  devices  may  be,  it  is  a  standard,  and 
so  is  of  service  in  protecting  the  people, 
especially  those  away  from  active  centers 
of  research. 


CHAPTER   IX 

There  is  responsibility  as  well  as  oppor- 
tunity. The  housewife  an  important  factor 
and  an  economic  force  in  improving  the 
national  health  and  increasing  the  national 
wealth. 


It  would  indeed  seem  that  opposition  to  woman's  participation  in  the 
totality  of  life  is  a  romantic  subterfuge,  resting  not  so  much  on  belief  in 
the  disability  of  woman  as  on  the  disposition  of  man  to  appropriate  con- 
spicuous and  pleasurable  objects  for  his  sole  use  and  ornamentation.  "A 
little  thing,  but  all  mine  own,"  was  one  of  the  remarks  of  Achilles  to 
Agamemnon  in  their  quarrel  over  the  two  maidens,  and  it  contains  the 
secret  of  man's  world-old  disposition  to  overlook  the  intrinsic  worth  of 
woman. 

Pf^.  I.  Thomas,  Women  and  Their   Occupations,  American 
JUagazine,  October,  igog. 

The  president  of  the  British  Medical  Association  about  1892  said, 
*'  I  wish  to  impress  it  upon  you  that  the  whole  future  progress  of  sanitary 
movement  rests,  for  its  permanent  and  executive  support,  upon  the  women 
of  our  land." 

In  a  letter  to  Madame  Bodichon,  dated  April  6,  1868,  George  Eliot 
writes  :  **  What  I  should  like  to  be  sure  of  as  a  result  of  higher  education 
for  women  —  a  result  that  will  come  to  pass  over  my  grave  —  is  their 
recognition  of  the  great  amount  of  social  unproducti've  labor  which  needs 
to  be  done  by  women,  and  which  is  now  either  not  done  at  all  or  done 
wretchedly. ' ' 

Sluoted  by  Mrs.  Nixon  in  a  paper  before  the  Conf  rence  of 
JVomen  Workers  in  England,  igo^. 


142 


CHAPTER   IX 

woman's  responsibility 

THERE  are  about  40,000,000  women 
and  girls  in  the  United  States.  About 
14,000,000  live  in  the  country  and  have  a 
direct  and  compelling  power  over  the  life 
of  the  community. 

In  rural  agricultural  districts  the  home- 
keeper  is  the  provider.  She  practically 
requisitions  from  farm  and  garden  what  she 
deems  necessary  for  the  family  table.  To 
an  extent  she  makes  the  clothing  and  sews 
the  house  linen.  She  also  exchanges  her 
perquisites,  egg  money,  perhaps,  for  furni- 
ture and  ornaments.  The  itinerant  peddler 
brings  the  world's  wares  to  her  door;  the 
mail-order  houses  do  the  rest. 

^'The  ideal  home  is  a  social  and  cooper- 
ative society  in  which  all  of  its  members 
unite  their  efforts  for  the  common  good. 
This  ideal  is  realized  most  nearly  in  the 
country  home,  where  even  the  smallest  child 
has  opportunity  to  be  and  generally  is  a  con- 
ns 


144  EUTHENICS 

tributor  to  the  family  support.  It  has  come 
to  be  a  recognized  fact  that  boys  and  girls, 
healthy,  industrious,  frugal,  capable,  intel- 
ligent, self-supporting,  cheerful,  and  patri- 
otic, abound  in  country  homes,  and  that  the 
prevalence  there  of  these  high  qualities  is 
largely  due  to  the  family  life,  which  re- 
quires each  individual  from  his  earliest 
years  to  bear  his  proportionate  share  in 
providing  for  the  maintenance  of  the  home. 
By  bringing  within  the  reach  of  the  country 
people  educational  advantages  suited  to 
their  needs,  rural  life  becomes  more  attrac- 
tive, country  homes  are  multiplied,  and  the 
valuable  qualities  which  these  homes  de- 
velop become  the  possession  of  a  correspond- 
ingly larger  number  of  the  citizenship  of 
the  state." ' 

The  government  has  recognized  the  need 
and  the  possibilities  of  meeting  it  in  the 
recognition  it  has  given  to  Farmers'  Insti- 
tutes for  women,  in  which,  by  lectures,  dem- 
onstration, and  short  winter  courses  at  the 
colleges,  the  interest  of  the  woman  in  her 
occupation  is  aroused.    She  is  not  only  given 

II.  H.  Hamilton,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  Circular  85. 


EUTHENICS  145 

help  in  details  of  her  daily  work,  but  she  is 
shown  how  much  the  efficiency  of  the  farm 
life  depends  upon  her  capability  and  intelli- 
gence. She  is  encouraged  in  the  using  of  all 
mechanical  and  scientific  appliances,  is  in- 
troduced to  the  means  of  mental  growth; 
but,  best  of  all,  she  is  given  the  stimulus  of 
social  recognition.  In  the  year  1908  there 
were  held  832  such  meetings  in  the  several 
states.  In  the  year  1910  the  number  will  be 
nearly  or  quite  doubled. 

In  no  other  form  of  society  is  the  power 
of  the  woman  for  good  or  ill  so  paramount 
as  in  rural  life,  in  no  other  mode  of  living  is 
the  family  so  much  at  her  mercy. 

In  suburban  and  city  life  the  family  can 
in  a  measure  escape  from  insufficient  care 
and  uncomfortable  conditions.  That  they 
do  so  escape,  any  student  of  social  tenden- 
cies will  testify.  The  great  increase  of  res- 
taurants, of  clubs  and  hotels  of  all  grades, 
shows  one  phase  of  the  unattractiveness  of 
home  life.  The  city  woman  is  only  half  a 
housekeeper;  she  has  only  one-eighth  of  a 
house  as  compared  with  her  rural  sister. 
Her  control  is  therefore  curtailed  until  she 


146  EUTHENICS 

feels  her  helplessness  in  the  hands  of  her 
*  landlord.  She  sighs  and  turns  to  other  in- 
terests. To  her  must  be  brought  the  knowl- 
edge of  her  power  as  a  social  factor  if  she 
will  but  use  the  knowledge  she  can  easily 
gain. 

The  city  woman  has  amused  herself 
because  she  has  seen  nothing  better  to  do 
with  her  time.  The  utilization  of  her  abil- 
ity is  all  that  is  needed  to  regenerate  city 
life.  Without  it  all  efforts  will  prove  fruit- 
less. Education  of  all  women  in  the  prin- 
y/  ,  ciples  of  sanitary  science  is  the  key  to  race 
progress  in  the  twentieth  century. 

As  an  economic  factor,  the  influence  of 
the  housewife  is  of  the  greatest  moment. 
Production  on  the  farm  is  only  one  phase. 
/  /    The  city  and  suburban  dweller  is  a  buyer, 

not  a  producer.  In  suburban  and  city  life 
the  housekeeper  has  more  temptations  to 
buy  needless  articles,  food  out  of  season,  to 
go  often  to  the  shops,  especially  on  bargain 
days.  She  thinks  her  taste  is  educated,  when 
it  is  only  aroused  to  notice  what  others  like. 
She  is  led  to  strive  after  effects  without 
knowing  how  to  attain  them.     It  has  been 


EUTHENICS  147 

estimated  by  advertising  experts  that  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  purchases  of  the  community 
are  determined  by  women,  not  always  ac- 
cording to  their  judgment,  but  by  a  sup- 
pression of  it.  Woman  is  made  to  think 
that  she  must  buy  certain  lines  of  goods. 
The  power  of  suggestion  has  been  referred 
to  in  a  preceding  chapter. 

When  civilization,  as  it  is  called,  per- 
suaded woman  to  give  up  manufacture 
and  to  become  a  buyer,  the  first  step  in 
the  disintegration  of  the  home  as  a  center 
of  information,  as  well  as  of  industry,  was 
taken.  The  housewife  and  mother  were 
made  to  look  to  the  dealer,  and  thus  to  feel 
their  helplessness.  This  sense  of  ignorance, 
this  subconscious  loss  of  power  over  things, 
only  increased  the  effect  of  that  fatalism 
which  the  control  of  machinery  was  leading 
man  out  from  under. 

It  is  barely  fifty  years  since  woman  be- 
gan to  ask  questions  and  insist  upon  know- 
ing, to  claim  freedom  of  movement,  a  chance 
to  breathe.  The  time  between  has  been  a 
time  of  plowed  fields,  often  muddy,  usually 
stony,  but  the  furrows  are  turning  green  and 


148  EUTHENICS 

the  harvest  will  prove  the  wisdom  of  the 
plowing. 

Woman  had  to  struggle  for  right  to  pri- 
vate judgment  and  public  action.  Some 
pioneers  had  to  enter  the  field  of  research, 
of  investigation,  in  order  that  they  might 
call  to  those  below  that  the  way  was  open. 
This  vast  company,  which  has  been  nearly 
untouched  by  the  scientific  spirit,  was 
warned  off  the  field  of  investigation,  and 
society  is  paying  the  penalty  of  its  own 
blindness. 

In  the  very  field  where  applied  science 
can  most  serve  human  welfare,  scarecrows 
have  been  set  up  most  prominently.  Not 
until  society  avails  itself  of  those  qualities  of 
mind  sorely  needed  in  the  field  of  sanitary 
science,  patient  attention  to  detail,  strong, 
practical  sense  directed  by  a  profound  in- 
terest in  the  subject,  will  it  begin  to  show 
what  height  it  is  capable  of  scaling. 

The  intrusting  of  so  many  great  fortunes 
to  women  shows  an  increasing  confidence  in 
their  judgment  of  social  needs.  It  shows 
that  woman's  education  has  passed  the  self- 
ish stage,  that  it  has  given  a  wider  vision  of 
the  whole  horizon. 


EUTHENICS  149 

It  may  be  said  without  fear  of  contra- 
diction that  the  future  well-being  of  society 
is  largely  in  the  hands  of  woman.  What 
will  she  do  with  it?  Responsibility  is  al- 
ways sobering. 

Let  her  once  realize  her  position  and 
woman  will  rise  to  the  task.  Instances  are 
not  wanting  of  groups  attacking  scientific 
and  administrative  problems  in  the  true 
spirit,  without  sentimental  charity,  to  which 
in  the  past  women  have  been  prone. 

If  civic  authorities  felt  that  women's 
leagues  were  informed  bodies  of  women 
whose  suggestions  they  would  make  no 
error  in  adopting,  more  legislation  could 
be  effected.  Too  often  city  councils  are 
approached  by  those  who  favor  some  whim 
or  fad,  and  so  ALL  women's  demands  are 
classed  together.  Much  harm  has  been 
done  to  the  cause  by  indiscreet,  pushing 
women  with  only  a  glimmer  of  knowledge. 
The  question  is  not  WOMAN,  but  ability  and 
women.  It  is  better,  as  a  rule,  to  work  out 
ideas  through  existing  organizations. 

All  the  problems  of  environment  which 
we  have  been  considering  would  be  solve! 


150  EUTHENICS 

in  half  the  time,  yes,  in  one-quarter,  if  all 
housewives  would  combine  in  carrying  out 
the  knowledge  which  some  of  them  have 
and  which  all  may  have. 

Infant  mortality  is  controllable  through 
the  training  of  the  mother  and  nurse.  Un- 
sanitary houses  are  the  results  of  careless 
housekeeping,  usually  a  product  of  apa- 
thetic fatalism.  Landlords  assume  that  the 
woman  will  submit.  When  she  has  a  woman 
sanitary  inspector  to  appeal  to,  matters  will 
take  on  a  different  aspect. 

Unsanitary  alleys  exist  because  the  abut- 
ters do  not  complain  loudly  enough  to  the 
right  authorities.  Dirty  markets  have  been 
so  long  tolerated  because  women  buyers 
carried  the  same  fatalism  to  the  stalls — 
^Vhat  is,  has  to  be." 

Society  is  only  just  beginning  to  realize 
that  it  has  at  its  command  today  for  its  own 
regeneration  a  great  unused  force  in  its  army 
of  housewives,  teachers,  mothers,  conscious 
of  power  but  uncertain  how  to  use  it.  Per- 
haps the  most  progressive  movement  of  the 
times  is  one  led  by  women  who  see  clearly 
that  cleanness  is  above  charity,  that  moral 


EUTHENICS  151 

support  must  be  given  to  those  who  know 
but  do  not  dare  to  do  right,  and  that  knowl- 
edge must  be  brought  to  the  ignorant.  Noth- 
ing can  stop  this  most  notable  progress  but 
a  relapse  into  apathy  and  fatalism  of  the 
vast  army  of  women  now  being  enlisted  to 
fight  disease. 

The  opportunity  has  come,  the  responsi- 
bility is  woman's  hereafter.  No  one  can 
take  it  from  her;  she  has  knowledge.  The 
door  has  opened,  she  has  taken  the  weapons 
in  hand,  is  learning  to  use  them.  Will  she 
falter  on  the  eve  of  victory  simply  because 
it  involves  some  sacrifice  of  prejudice  or 
tradition?  Must  she  not  boldly  accept  the 
twentieth  century  challenge  and  fight  her 
way  to  victory,  even  at  some  aesthetic  sacri- 
fice? In  another  hundred  years,  then,  Eu- 
thenics  may  give  place  to  Eugenics,  and  the 
better  race  of  men  become  an  actuality. 

The  keeping  of  the  house,  the  laundry 
work,  the  cleaning,  the  cooking,  the  daily 
oversight,  must  have  for  its  conscious  end 
the  welfare  of  the  family.  It  cannot  be 
done  without  labor,  but  the  labor  in  this 
as  in  any  process  may  be  lightened  by 
thought  and  by  machinery. 


V 


152  EUTHENICS 

Knowledge  of  labor-saving  appliances 
is  today  everywhere  demanded  of  the  suc- 
cessful establishment  EXCEPT  of  the  family 
home.  Is  it  not  time  that  it  came  in  for  its 
share?  If  the  housewife  would  use  wisely 
the  information  at  her  hand  today,  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  in  six  cases  out  of  ten  she  could 
cut  in  half  the  housekeeping  budget  and 
double  the  comfort  of  living. 

As  conditions  are,  the  twentieth  century 
sees  a  strange  phenomenon — the  most  vital 
of  all  processes,  the  raising  of  children, 
carried  on  under  adverse  conditions ;  human 
labor  and  life  being  held  of  as  little  account 
as  in  the  days  of  building  the  pyramids. 

Women  may  be  trained  to  become  the 
economic  leaders  in  the  body  politic.  It  is 
doubtful  if  life  will  be  anything  but  waste- 
ful until  they  are  trained  to  realize  their 
responsibility. 

The  housewife  was  told  that  she  must 
stay  at  home  and  do  her  work.  This  was 
preached  at  her,  written  at  her,  but  no  one 
of  them  all,  save,  perhaps,  the  Englishmen 
Lecky  and  H.  G.  Wells,  saw  the  problem  in 
its  social  significance,  saw  that  the  work  of 


EUTHENICS  153 

home-making  in  this  engineering  age  must 
be  worked  out  on  engineering  principles, 
and  with  the  cooperation  of  both  trained 
men  and  trained  women.  The  mechanical 
setting  of  life  is  become  an  important  factor, 
and  this  new  impulse  which  is  showing  it- 
self so  clearly  today  for  the  modified  con- 
struction and  operation  of  the  family  home 
is  the  final  crown  or  seal  of  the  conquest  of 
the  last  stronghold  of  conservatism,  the 
home-keeper. 

Tomorrow,  if  not  today,  the  woman  who 
is  to  be  really  mistress  of  her  house  must 
be  an  engineer,  so  far  as  to  be  able  to 
understand  the  use  of  machines  and  to  be- 
lieve what  she  is  told.  Your  ham-and-eggs 
woman  was  of  the  old  type,  now  gone  by  in 
the  fight  for  the  right  to  think. 

The  emergence  from  the  primitive  con- 
dition was  slow  because  the  few  of  us  who 
did  show  our  heads  were  beaten  down  and 
told  we  did  not  know.  It  has  required  many 
college  women  (from  some  50,000  college 
women  graduates)  to  build  and  run  houses 
and  families  successfully,  here  one  and  there 
another,  until  the  barrel  of  flour  has  been 


154  EUTHENICS 

leavened.  Society  is  being  reorganized,  not 
in  sudden,  explosive  ways,  but  underneath 
all  the  froth  and  foam  the  yeast  has  been 
working.  The  world  is  going  to  the  bad 
only  if  one  believes  that  material  progress 
is  bad.  If  we  can  see  the  new  heaven  and 
the  new  earth  in  it,  then  we  may  have  faith 
in  the  future. 

The  human  elements  of  love  and  sacri- 
fice, of  foresight  and  of  faith,  are  going  to 
persist,  and  any  apparent  upheaval  is  only 
because  of  settling  down  into  a  more  solid 
condition,  a  readjustment  to  circumstances. 
As  Caroline  Hunt  has  said^:  "We  may  dis- 
regard the  popular  fear  that  the  home  will 
finally  take  upon  itself  the  characteristics  of 
a  public  institution.  .  .  .  Human  intelligence, 
which  suits  means  to  ends,  and  which  is  ever 
coming  to  the  aid  of  human  affection,  will 
prevent  that.  So  long  as  affection  lasts  it  will 
seek  satisfactory  expression  in  home  life, 
and  so  long  as  intelligence  endures  it  will 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  extension  of  the 
borders  of  the  home  beyond  the  possibilities 
of  the  mutual  helpfulness  to  its  members." 

iHome  Problems  from  a  New  Standpointj,  p.  140. 


EUTHENICS  155 

The  persistent  efforts  of  the  farsighted 
to  secure  a  place  in  education  for  the  sub- 
jects fundamental  to  the  modern  home  are 
now  respectfully  listened  to. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  strange  that  the  first 
successes  in  modern  housekeeping  were 
gained  in  public  institutions,  for  there  ac- 
counts were  kept  and  saving  told.  When 
one  hospital  saved  $12,000  in  one  year  by 
an  expenditure  of  $2,000  for  a  trained 
woman,  trustees  began  to  take  notice.  When 
large  state  institutions  were  reorganized 
and  made  over  from  unsavory  scandals 
into  reputable  and  life-saving  establish- 
ments, even  legislators  took  notice.  The 
trained  woman  superintendent  proved  not 
only  more  competent  but  less  affected  by 
perquisites. 

(I  do  not  vouch  for  the  universal  main- 
tenance of  this  high  standard  when  women 
managers  have  had  longer  experience;  but 
so  far  conscience  and  sterling  integrity  have 
been  attributes  of  all  my  expert  women, 
even  if  they  have  now  and  then  disappointed 
me  in  endurance  or  in  ability.  Is  not  this 
a  fact  of  great  social  significance?) 


156  EUTHENICS 

It  is  universally  conceded  today,  only  a 
few  willfully  blind  or  croaking  pessimists 
dissenting,  that  home-keeping  under  modern 
conditions  requires  a  knowledge  of  condi- 
tions and  a  power  of  control  of  persons  and 
machines  obtained  only  through  education 
or  through  bitter  experience,  and  that  edu- 
cation is  the  less  costly. 

When  social  conditions  become  adjusted 
to  the  new  order,  it  will  be  seen  how  much 
gain  in  power  the  community  has  made, 
how  much  better  worth  the  people  are. 
Have  faith  in  the  working  out  of  the  des- 
tiny of  the  race;  be  ready  to  accept  the 
unaccustomed,  to  use  the  radium  of  social 
progress  to  cure  the  ulcers  of  the  old  fric- 
tion. What  if  a  few  mistakes  are  made? 
How  else  shall  the  truth  be  learned?  Try 
all  things  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 

The  Home  Economics  Movement  is  an 
endeavor  to  hold  the  home  and  the  welfare 
of  children  from  slipping  over  the  cliff  by 
a  knowledge  which  will  bring  courage  to 
combat  the  destructive  tendencies.  Is  not 
one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  our  age 
a  forcible  overcoming  of  the  natural  trend 


EUTHENICS  157 

of  things?  If  a  river  is  by  natural  law 
wearing  away  its  bank  in  a  place  we  wish 
to  keep,  do  we  sit  down  and  moan  and  say 
it  is  sad,  but  we  cannot  help  it?  No,  that 
attitude  belonged  to  the  Middle  Ages.  We 
say.  Hold  fast,  we  cannot  have  that;  and 
we  cement  the  sides  and  confine  or  turn  the 
river. 

The  ancient  cities  whose  ruins  are  now 
being  explored  in  Asia  seem  to  have  been 
abandoned  because  of  failure  of  the  water 
supply  as  the  earth  became  desiccated;  so 
was  the  home  of  our  own  Zunis.  Does  such 
a  possibility  stop  us?  No,  we  bring  water 
from  hundreds  of  miles.  Will  man,  who 
has  gained  such  control  over  nature,  sit 
down  before  his  own  problems  and  say, 
"What  am  I  going  to  do  about  it?" 

What  if  the  apparent  motion  is  toward 
cells  to  sleep  in,  and  clubs  to  play  bridge  in, 
and  amusements  for  evenings,  and  a  strenu- 
ous business  life,  run  on  piratical  principles, 
into  which  the  women  are  drawn  as  decoy 
ducks?  Because  this  isy  is  it  going  to  be, 
as  soon  as  a  good  proportion  of  the  thinking 
people  stand  face  to  face  with  the  problem? 


158  EUTHENICS 

I  believe  it  is  possible  to  solve  the  problem, 
but  only  if  the  aid  of  scientifically  trained 
women  is  brought  into  service  to  work  in 
harmony  with  the  engineer  who  has  already 
accomplished  so  much. 

Household  engineering  is  the  great  need 
for  material  welfare,  and  social  engineer- 
ing for  moral  and  ethical  well-being.  What 
else  does  this  persistent  forcing  of  scientific 
.training  to  the  front  mean?  If  the  State  is 
to  have  good  citizens,  productive  human 
beings,  it  must  provide  for  the  teaching  of 
the  essentials  to  those  who  are  to  become 
the  parents  of  the  next  generation.  No  state 
can  thrive  while  its  citizens  waste  their  re- 
sources of  health,  bodily  energy,  time  and 
brain  power,  any  more  than  a  nation  may 
prosper  that  wastes  its  natural  resources. 

The  teaching  of  domestic  economy  in 
the  elementary  school  and  home  economics 
in  the  higher  is  intended  to  give  the  people 
a  sense  of  control  over  their  environment 
and  to  avert  a  panic  as  to  the  future. 

The  economics  of  consumption,  includ- 
ing as  it  does  the  ethics  of  spending,  must 
have  a  place  in  our  higher  education,  pre- 


EUTHENICS  159 

ceded  in  earlier  grades  by  manual  dexterity 
and  scientific  information,  which  will  lead 
to  true  economy  in  the  use  of  time,  energy, 
and  money  in  the  home  life  of  the  land. 
Education  is  obliged  to  take  cognizance  of 
the  need,  because  the  ideal  American  home- 
stead, that  place  of  busy  industry,  with 
occupation  for  the  dozen  children,  no  longer 
exists.  Gone  out  of  it  are  the  industries, 
gone  out  of  it  are  ten  of  the  children,  gone 
out  of  it  in  large  measure  is  that  sense  of 
moral  and  religious  responsibility  which 
was  the  keystone  of  the  whole. 

The  methods  of  work  imposed  by  hous- 
ing conditions  are  wasteful  of  time,  energy, 
and  money,  and  the  people  are  restive,  they 
know  not  why.  As  was  said  earlier,  shelter 
was  found  by  early  students  of  social  con- 
ditions to  be  most  in  need  of  remedy,  so  we 
see  that 

"In  the  first  place  the  state  is  beginning 
to  offer  positive  aid  to  secure  a  suitable 
home  for  each  family.  A  communistic  habi- 
tation forces  the  members  of  a  family  to 
conform  insensibly  to  communistic  modes  of 
thought.    Paul  Goehre,  in  his  keen  observa- 


l6o  EUTHENICS 

tions  printed  in  ^ Three  Months  in  a  German 
Workshop,'  interpreted  this  tendency  in  all 
clearness.  The  architecture  of  a  city  tene- 
ment house  is  to  blame  for  the  silent  but 
certain  transformation  of  the  home  into  a 
sty.  Instead  of  accepting  this  condition  as 
inevitable,  like  a  law  of  nature,  and  accept- 
ing its  consequences,  all  experience  demands 
of  those  who  believe  in  the  monogamic  fam- 
ily, that  they  make  a  united  and  persistent 
fight  on  the  evil  which  threatens  the  slowly 
acquired  qualities  secured  in  the  highest 
form  of  the  family.  It  would  be  unworthy 
of  us  to  permit  a  great  part  of  a  modern 
population  to  descend  again  to  the  animal 
level  from  which  the  race  has  ascended  only 
through  aeons  of  struggle  and  difficulty. 
When  we  remember  that  very  much,  per- 
haps most  of  the  progress  has  been  dearly 
purchased  at  the  cost  of  women,  by  the  ap- 
peal of  her  weakness  and  need  and  mother- 
hood, we  must  all  the  more  firmly  resolve 
not  to  yield  the  field  to  a  temporary  effect 
of  a  needless  result  of  neglect  and  avarice. 
As  the  evil  conditions  are  merely  the  work 
of  unwise  and  untaught  communities,  the 


EUTHENICS  l6l 

cure  will  come  from  education  of  the  same 
communities  in  wisdom  and  science  and 
duty.  What  man  has  marred,  man  can  make 
better."^ 

It  is  not  impossible  to  furnish  a  decent 
habitation  for  every  productive  laborer  in 
all  our  great  cities.  Many  really  humane 
people  are  overawed  by  the  authority,  the 
pompous  and  powerful  assertions  of  "suc- 
cessful" men  of  affairs;  and  they  often 
sleep  while  such  men  are  forming  secret 
conspiracies  against  national  health  and 
morality  with  the  aid  of  legal  talent  hired 
to  kill.  Only  when  the  social  mind  and 
conscience  is  educated  and  the  entire  com- 
munity becomes  intelligent  and  alert  can 
legislation  be  secured  which  places  all 
competitors  on  a  level  where  humanity  is 
possible. 

Here,  again,  the  monogamic  family  is 
the  social  interest  at  stake.  It  is  a  conflict 
for  altars  and  fires.  We  are  told  that  all 
these  results  are  the  effect  of  a  natural,  uni- 
form tendency  in  the  progress  of  the  busi- 
ness world,  and  that  it  is  useless  to  combat 

IC.  R,  Henderson,  Proceedings  Lake  Placid  Conference,  190a. 


l62  EUTHENICS 

it.  Professor  Henderson  reminds  us  that 
tendency  to  uniformity  revealed  by  statistics 
may  be  reversed  when  resolute  men  and 
women,  possessed  of  higher  ideals,  unite  to 
resist  it.  Jacob  A.  Riis  holds  that  these 
evils  are  not  by  a  decree  of  fate,  but  are  the 
result  of  positive  wrong,  and  he  dedicates 
his  "Ten  Years'  War"  as  follows— "to  the 
faint-hearted  and  those  of  little  faith." 

In  like  manner  we  call  today  for  more 
faith  in  a  way  out  of  the  slough  of  despond, 
more  resolute  endeavor  to  improve  social 
and  economic  conditions.  We  beg  the  lead- 
ers of  public  opinion  to  pause  before  they 
condemn  the  efforts  making  to  teach  those 
means  of  social  control  which  may  build 
yet  again  a  home  life  that  will  prove  the 
nursery  of  good  citizens  and  of  efficient 
men  and  women  with  a  sense  of  responsi- 
bility to  God  and  man  for  the  use  they  make 
of  their  lives. 


^     Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


/ 


r 

EUTHENICS,  OR  THE 
SCIENCE  OF  CONTROLLABLE  ENVIRONMENT 

Human  efficiency  and  welfare  due  to 
Heredity  (See  Eugenics)  and 
Environment 

1.  Natural,  cosmical — climate — 

2.  Natural,  modified  by  human  effort 

Wet  and  dry  soil 
Waterways  and  forests 
Food  supplies 

3.  Artificial 

Housing — clothing — sanitation 

EUTHENICS  —  Conscious  acquisition  and  application  of  sci- 
entific knowledge 

I.    Science  in  the  laboratory 

Discovery  of  laws  of  science 
Knowledge  of  cause  and  effect 

II.    Dissemination  of  scientific  knowledge 

Education 
III.    Application  of  science 
Habits  of  living 

Technique 
Stimulus  to  civic  improvement 
Constructive  legislation 

I.    Science  acquired  through  laboratory  and  field  researt 
Universities 
Johns  Hopkins,  Clark,  etc. 

Research  institutes 
Rockefeller  Institute 
Carnegie  Institute 
Henry  Phipps  Institute 
Sage  Foundation,  etc. 

Sanitary  Science  =  Application  of  acquired  laws  to 
I.     National  welfare 

Hook    worm,    Pellagra,    Yellow    fever,    etc.,    in    Panama, 
The  Philippines,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  etc. 
2.    Individual  health  of  body  and  mind 


